1916 Commemoration Moves Ahead
This spring marks the 75th Anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, and the battles are still going on in Ireland.
The politicians have been ducking the call to organize commemorative celebrations, and it seems as if the slack may have been picked up by private citizens who are embarrassed by the government’s unwillingness to honor Ireland’s heroes.
On the Rising’s 50th Anniversary in 1966, the Irish Republic held huge ceremonial celebrations across the country, and a major parade, attended by many politicians, was held in Dublin.
However most of today’s Irish politicians have gone to great pains to remove themselves from all things Republican. The common thinking is that honoring 1916 will only encourage the IRA in their current campaign.
So far, with the date less than two months away, the only thing that Charles Haughey’s government is saying about the event is that they will be issuing a commemorative stamp. No military honors, no parades.
However a group of citizens going by the name of “Reclaim the Spirit of Easter 1916,” has gotten together to ensure that the date doesn’t goes by unnoticed.
Made up of leading thinkers, writers, political activists, and public figures, the group includes former Fianna Fail Minister Kevin Boland, Tomas MacAnna of the Abbey Theater, Paul Hill of the Guildford Four, and Senator Eamon O’Cuiv, the grandson of Eamon de Valera. The leaders of all of Ireland’s political parties have declined invitations to join the movement, except for Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin.
The group’s chairman, artist Robert Ballagh, has outlined the highlights of the celebrations as a parade (non-military) and pageant in Dublin on March 6, an art exhibition of paintings by the Countess Markievicz, and an international debate and forum on how the Easter Uprising influenced anti-Imperialist movements throughout the world and was a crucial factor in the unraveling of the British Empire. There will also be many exhibits, concerts and performances in conjunction with the festivities, and more events are being organized every day. For more information you can write to the committee at No. 16 North Great George’s Street, Dublin 1, Ireland.
Irish React to Thatcher Resignation
Perhaps no other British leader has been the source of as much emotion from the Irish people as Margaret Thatcher. Irish Republicans made no bones about their hatred for her, constitutional nationalists didn’t like her too much either, although they figured she made great progress with the Anglo-Irish Agreement, and Northern Unionists loved her support but hated her for going through with the Agreement without them.
Love her or hate her, the ‘Iron Lady’ stepped down as Prime Minister amid growing pressure from her own party. In Ireland, she is remembered most of all for her staunch refusal to grant political status to IRA prisoners, which led to the deaths of Bobby Sands and nine other hunger strikers in Long Kesh prison. This, plus the legacy of abuses by the British security forces in Northern Ireland in the 1980’s has made her public enemy No. 1 to Irish Nationalists.
However, she will also go down as the Prime Minister who undertook power-sharing negotiations with the Dublin government, which led to the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement. Critics will point out that she was forced into the position to stem the support for Sinn Féin in the North, which had been on the rise since the death of the hunger strikers. She was famous for her patronizing, belittling attitude towards Irish politicians, but it was these same politicians she agreed should have a say in the affairs of Northern Ireland.
Irish-Americans mightn’t have seen the last of her though. A few weeks ago the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Republican Party is considering having Margaret Thatcher kick off the keynote speech at their 1992 convention in Houston.
O’Connor Calls Out the Troops
Hundreds of members of the Irish community answered a plea from New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor to come out and protect the cathedral from a massive protest rally in December. The Cardinal called on the Irish to act as a “human barricade” between the altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the expected hundreds of protesters from a coalition of militant homosexual, feminist and pro-choice groups.
The previous year, that same coalition had attacked the Cathedral during Sunday Mass, with protesters chaining themselves to pews, interrupting the readings with chants, and spitting out and stomping on the communion hosts, because of their objections to church policies on gay rights and abortion, and, in particular, O’Connor’s outspoken conservative attitude towards such issues.
This time around, a judge had ruled that any disruption would be a violation of the right to worship, and he warned against a scene like last year’s, which resulted in many arrests. There was to be a heavy presence of plain-clothes New York City police, but the Cardinal still wanted the extra protection of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the United Irish Counties, the Knights of Columbus and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.
“We were there to celebrate Mass, occupy space at the front of the cathedral, and to say the rosary aloud with the Cardinal, if the protesters got out of hand,” said Frank Beirne, chairman of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee.
The protesters had to sit away from the altar, and several dozen of them walked out during the Cardinal’s sermon. Apart from the chants of picketers out on Fifth Avenue, there were no major disruptions in the Cathedral, and only three summonses were given out.
O’Connor gave his thanks to the Irish groups in particular, noting that this wasn’t the first time they were called on to protect St. Patrick’s—in the mid-1800’s, one of the chief functions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians was to physically protect the cathedral as it was being built from violent attacks by anti-Catholic, anti-Irish Nativist groups.
Divorce Question Rises Again
Four years ago, when Irish citizens voted on a referendum on the passing of a divorce law, the bill was overwhelmingly turned down.
Ireland has never had a divorce law, and it seemed as if it would not be ready for one for some time.
However, new attitudes in the country suggest that a change is in the air. A Sunday Independent opinion poll showed that 56 percent of the people favored the legalization of divorce, with 38 percent opposed and the rest undecided.
Also, in the last year alone, there was a 400 percent increase in the number of requests for marriage separations, with nearly 800 couples requesting, up from 200 the previous year. (The government does grant separations, which allow for an official recognition of the breakup but do not allow for the possibility of re-marriage.)
Most people are fed up with what they see as hypocrisy towards the ban on divorce, as many people who can afford it have traveled to England or even to the Caribbean to have their marriages dissolved so that they could marry again legally.
With every political party except for Fianna Fail actively calling for the passing of a divorce law, not to mention the pro-divorce influence of newly-elected President Mary Robinson, it appears likely that another referendum will be drawn up within a year or two.
However, all this does not necessarily mean that it will be passed.
Whatever the polls say, Irish voters have been known to suddenly grow squeamish about divorce when they get to the voting booth before the 1986 referendum, every poll predicted a passing of the bill, with some reporting support for divorce running as high as 61 percent. But the voters suddenly got cold feet, and they struck down the divorce bill by a two-to-one margin.
Classified Documents Released Under National Archives Act
The Irish government recently opened up the closet to over 9,000 officially classified documents, as part of the National Archives Act. The new law, for the first time in Ireland’s history, allows for the public disclosure of top secret documents, with a protectionary grandfather clause of thirty years. This first disclosure covers the years from 1960 back to beginning of the Free State government in 1922. (Documents from 1961 will be released next year, from 1962 the year after, etc.) Some of the revelations were more than a bit surprising, and are bound to have some formidable repercussions on the state of Ireland today. Here is a sampling.
De Valera Says ‘No’ to a United Ireland
In 1940 the Irish government said ‘no’ to an offer which would have reunited the 32 counties of Ireland in return for helping the British in World War II, because Prime Minister Eamon de Valera believed that the Germans would win the war.
Winston Churchill’s British government tried to convince de Valera to give up neutrality and join the fight, and the return of the six counties of Northern Ireland were secretly offered as the reward.
But the Irish figured it would be better to stay on the good side of the Germans because it was believed that Britain would fall, and a united Ireland would be achieved anyway in a new Europe, with Germany at the helm.
However, after the Americans entered the war and the Germans had ventured eastward against the Russians, the Irish government went about cutting secret deals with the British, including giving them aid in spy operations and permission to use airfields and airspace. They even drafted up plans for collusion between Irish and British military forces.
Although de Valera was now privately helping the British win the war, the documents show that de Valera was hesitant to become too friendly. The papers show that the collusion of armies was agreed to in the event of a German invasion, but that no British soldiers would be allowed to set foot on Irish soil unless first met by an Irish liaison, so as to prevent any entry “without an invitation.”
Not since WWII has neutrality been such a major issue as it is today, because of the conflict in the Persian Gulf. The revelation that Ireland has breached its neutrality in the past will surely have repercussions on the calls from outside as well as inside Ireland to give up its stance on neutrality.
U.S. Troops Sold Guns to the IRA
Also from the World War II years are documents telling how the government of the Irish Republic knew that American soldiers stationed in Northern Ireland were selling guns to the IRA.
In 1944 Irish police intelligence reported to the Minister for Justice that a group of U.S. soldiers stationed in County Tyrone had attempted to sell a shipment of “700 rifles and revolvers,” which were supposed to have been sent on to the underground French resistance.
It was stated that although the local IRA couldn’t afford the entire shipment, a number of guns were bought, and one was confiscated by the Irish police.
The Minister ordered the police not to tell the British security forces, or the U.S. Army officials about the sale, saying that the Irish government considered it “not desirable.”
The Censors and their Scissors
So many films were being censored in Ireland during the 1930’s, that the government was warned that film halls were in danger of going out of business. Documents show that the government censor was so strict that he did not even allow newsreels of swimming races because they showed girls in “bathing suits with bare legs.”
The censors documents also contained worries about newspapers that ran advertisements of “corsets and brassieres.” Even some medical journals were banned because of their indecency.
Trotsky Exiled to Ireland?
After being thrown out of his native Russia because of a falling out with Stalin, Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky wanted to settle in Ireland.
The plea for asylum was denied by the government in 1930, the only excuse being that “conditions were not right.” After the rejection Trotsky opted for Mexico, where he was assassinated.
Government Cuts Hit the Golf Course
In 1938 the building of a private golf course in Phoenix Park for the Irish president, Douglas Hyde, was the source of much paperwork for the Minister for Finance. Finally the Minister agreed, but he warned the President not to go overboard, limiting the course to only eight holes instead of nine and keeping the total cost of building the course “under £45.”
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the February 1991 issue of Irish America. ♦
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