We should concentrate on the values and ideals as expressed by tomorrow’s Irishmen and Irishwomen

On the eve of Proclamation Day, there were claims that two homeless men were moved on by gardaí from their sleeping positions outside the GPO. The gardaí said there is no policy of moving homeless people on from the locale, but there is increased security in Dublin’s O’Connell St ahead of the Easter commemorations, writes Michael Clifford.

The two men habitually bed down near the exact location where Pádraig Pearse read out the Proclamation, which has gone down in the annals of Irish history as scared text defining an egalitarian state.

On the morning of Proclamation Day, Adrian Ismay died from a heart attack associated with injuries he suffered in a bomb attack on March 4. He was a 52-year-old father of three who worked as a prison officer. The so-called New IRA claimed responsibility for the attack. They, and their predecessors in the Provisional IRA, claim direct lineage to Pearse and the other members of the Provisional Government of 1916, pointing to the Proclamation as evidence of their legitimacy.

All across the State on the same morning — last Tuesday — the Tricolour was raised, the national anthem sung, and the Proclamation read aloud. I was privileged to attend one such ceremony in the North Dublin National School Project (NDNSP).

Elements of the ceremony were split between the classes, and included the reading of new proclamations composed by pupils in fifth and sixth.

Typical of the tone of the proclamation by the fifth class was the passage on education. “We declare that every child should have the right to an education that fosters and develops their individual needs and helps them grow and develop to their full potential. There must be equal access to all opportunities.”

Feargal Ó Coigligh of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht handed out medals to two pupils who were descendants of Peadar Kearney and Thomas Francis Meagher, respectively the composer of the national anthem and the leader of the 1848 rebellion.

The school is under the patronage of Educate Together, a multi-denominational trust which would have met with the approval of James Connolly back in the day, but would most likely have caused discomfort to the devout Pearse, and probably would have prompted the Church hierarchy of the times to take up arms themselves.

Proclamation Day was a well thought-out and executed concept, and is typical of the commemorative programme. The proclamations drawn up by the pupils in NDNSP — which I assume mirrors those from all other schools — were full of egalitarianism, equality, and inclusion. A selection of them from various schools should be framed and displayed along the corridors of Leinster House to remind representatives of the type of values they claim to espouse.

By contrast, perhaps the centenary year is a perfect staging post from which to leave behind the original proclamation that exercises a mythical hold on the national psyche.

Much of the content is questionable. There are a couple of socially-enlightened stands, which were relatively unique for their time. Calling for election “by the suffrages of all her men and women” certainly was, but whether that approach to equality would have survived the mores and social power structure of the day — dominated by the Church — is open to scepticism.

There is also a nod to guaranteeing “the religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens”, which is highly commendable. That line, in particular, is referenced with irony at times in today’s Ireland, never more so than when two homeless men are moved on from the spot where the words were first uttered.

For those who claim that the country would have turned out differently had the leaders lived, this is an example of the Ireland that might have been.

Again though, many’s the enlightened idea that shrivelled and died in a democracy en route from concept to execution. The American Declaration of Independence is one example of a fine piece of work from which one would never have suspected could emerge a nation riven by slavery for a period, and racism to this very day.

What really defines the Proclamation though is its tone. Like that of Kearney’s Soldier’s Song, the tone is violent as it “summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom”. That along with other references was enough to provide ballast for the various violent factions that subsequently drew legitimacy from the actions of 1916.

For sure, the declaration was penned in a highly militarised environment, when concepts like blood sacrifice were current, but it also provided a hostage to fortune for the Republic to be and the northern statelet. There is plenty more in the text open to further misrepresentation. Last January, in the Dáil, while excoriating the Government over the homeless situation, Gerry Adams referenced the line about “cherishing all the children of the nation equally”.

Gerry Adams

The irony of that misrepresentation was lost on most. The line in the proclamation was referencing Catholic and Protestant rather than those of tender years. Then again, perhaps Mr Adams’ ignorance on the matter is a tad wilful. In the Troubles, Sinn Féin’s gallant allies in the Provisional IRA conducted a campaign of ethnic cleansing along the border, murdering Protestant famers and rural dwellers for nothing more than their religious persuasion. Instead of cherishing all the children, the IRA considered it wiser to just shoot them.

It is on the matter of unionism that the document drifts into delusion. The new Republic, it asserts, would be “oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.” This ignores the fact that unionists had formed the Ulster Volunteer Force four years earlier to prevent any attempt to unite its minority with a majority on the island separate from Britain. It fails to address the reality that a civil war, bloody and probably unending, would follow any complete departure of the British.

Was it a case of just putting together a document to act as a prop in the theatre that was about to explode into life? The drafters of the Proclamation constructed a Rising in poetry, with little regard for the prose that would be required to govern afterwards. The leaders of 1916 were brave, selfless patriots, but beyond striking a blow, did they spend much time contemplating what kind of Ireland could realistically emerge? Maybe if they lived they would have been amenable to a rewrite.

Maybe now, with the passing of Proclamation Day, we can elevate and concentrate solely on the values and ideals as expressed by tomorrow’s Irishmen and Irishwomen.