Let’s honour an unlikely revolutionary
Tom Clarke was a most unlikely revolutionary. He was born on the Isle of Wight, the son of a British army sergeant. So highly was Clarke thought of by his revolutionary peers that he was given the honour of being the first to sign the 1916 proclamation.
To those who would oppose renaming the airport in his honour because of the physical force tradition he adopted, may I say the Rising is as much part of our history as is the Great Famine and Queen Victoria. If we have the political maturity and generosity of spirit to accept the many placenames which reflects our imperial past, should we not adopt the same maturity to accept our own revolutionary past?
