Why are we still cherishing self-conscious 1916 Proclamation?

John A Murphy suggests there is far less to the Proclamation of the Republic than is often

In my nationalist boyhood, one of my party pieces was declaiming Patrick Pearse’s oration at the grave of O’Donovan Rossa. It never occurred to me that I should recite the 1916 Proclamation as an encore, despite Pearse’s significant input into the latter.

The 1915 oration is generally seen as a dry run for the Easter 1916 document, yet the two could hardly be more different. The oration is splendid nationalist rhetoric, personal and passionate, with its memorable “Fenian dead” climax.