Citizens must celebrate 1916 centenary if Government won’t

As we near the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, it is obvious the Government has abandoned ownership of the most seminal event in Irish history.

Rumblings about our revolutionary past and the morality of commemorating it are gaining momentum. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, was at the Fine Gael National Conference (whatever happened to Ard Fheis?) warning us that we cannot allow the centenary commemorations to become divisive, and there have even been calls for a low-key ceremony for fear of offending people of different traditions on this island.

In a call for the “shameless celebration” of the Easter Rising centenary, whatever government is in power in 2016, Ronan Fanning, UCD professor emeritus of history, said there must be a “recognition of historical reality”.