1916 is all about 2016

The 1916 carry-on is all about 2016 really. It is an attempt to disguise things like partition, the refusal to back the Provisional IRA in the North after 1969 (they were exactly the same type of people as Pearse and co) and the surrender of sovereignty to the EU. As the PSNI begins a murder investigation into the death of a prison officer, it is just as well that the Irish State choose to pretend there was a difference between 1916 and 1969 (despite doing a great deal to light the fuse there with the 50th anniversary celebrations in 1966). The continued threat from dissident Republicans reflects the fact that not everyone in the North is prepared to pretend that 1916 and 1969 were different. Most people in the Republic don't realize (not least because the Republic is almost as as partitionist as Northern Ireland) that for Northern Nationalists the Treaty of 1921 meant nothing. Their situation didn't improve. Indeed, it worsened for another fifty years although the creation of the British welfare state after WW2 gave Nationalists some breaks that some took and that enabled a new generation of Nationalist leaders to emerge in the 1960s.

 

The 1916 Rising provided a leadership cadre that prevented conscription being extended to Ireland in 1918, kept the Irish State out of World War 2 and prevented conscription being extended to the North during WW2. The 1916 Rising, therefore, prevented far greater bloodshed in WW1 and the possible destruction of Irish society, North and South, in WW2. Eamon De Valera objected to conscription being extended to the North. Churchill’s generals told Churchill to let it go as they were satisfied they would get more volunteers from the 32 counties than conscripted soldiers from the North only. Dev would have sought to prevent people from here joining the British forces had conscription being extended to the North and he would probably have broadly succeeded. Those are considerable achievements that Home Rule and John Redmond would never have achieved.

 

The 1916 Rising, though necessary, was violent and bloody (as all wars are) and should not be celebrated like a carnival. Commemorated, yes, jumped on by bandwagoning politicians trying to disguise their many failures and betrayals, no. The contrast between the celebrations (they will now look - what they are - uncouth after the murder of the Northern prison officer), on the one hand, and the condition of this state, on the other, is embarrassing. Much of the torrent of print and broadcast media output about 1916 is irrelevant and clearly related to the agendas of today. About those, perhaps the less said the better.