An exemplary nationalist

Remembering Thomas Davis

President Michael D Higgins visits Cork today to honour the life and work of Thomas Davis, one of the very inspiring, if little remembered, leaders of Irish nationalism, who was born in Mallow just over 200 years ago.

Davis died of scarlet fever at 31, but in his short public life he created a legacy that, from this vantage point, seems very far ahead of its time. He advocated brotherhood of Irishmen, irrespective of their religion, and in doing so expressed the noblest ideals of the nationalist movement. He was religiously ambivalent and this unfortunately meant he underestimated the malevolent forces of sectarianism.

His hopes around religiously segregated education have yet to be fully realised. In a declaration that would resonate with millions, Davis, denouncing the materialism of the market economy, deplored “this thing, call it Yankeeism or Englishism, which measures prosperity by exchangeable value, measures duty by gain, and limits desires to food, clothes, and respectability”. He encouraged the idea of “the republic of virtue” that those who wanted a new and free Ireland would not dishonour the cause “by passions vain and lowly”. This still seems a pertinent challenge.

But most of all, Davis recognised the power of idealism and ambition in politics and education. The values he advanced would serve us very well today — if only we had the energy and commitment that he exemplified to realise them.