How one man’s folly helped to snuff out a nation’s fight for freedom

IT’s all of half a century now since President John F Kennedy declared: “October 23, 1956, is a day that will live forever in the annals of free men and nations.

No other day since history began has shown more clearly the eternal unquenchability of man’s desire to be free, whatever the odds against success, whatever the sacrifice required”.

Monday will be the 50th anniversary of the abortive Hungarian rising of 1956. Much has changed since then as we witnessed the demise of the British, French and Soviet empires, the most turmoil within the Catholic Church since the Reformation and the emergence of an Ireland we could not have dreamed of before the advent of the Celtic Tiger.