‘Revolution Papers’ isn’t without omissions

The Revolution Papers’ efforts at providing a critique of the 1916 Proclamation, in its much-heralded first issue are pedestrian, biased and lacking in historical perspective.

Tasked with ‘reading between the lines’ of the Proclamation, reviewer Ronan McGreevy focusses exclusively on what he sees as its apparent contradictions. In the process, he manages to miss entirely the grand sweep of this profoundly inclusive, egalitarian, modern and, in the main, beautifully written, state-founding document of the early 20th century.

The reviewer ignores the opening words of the document, ‘Irishmen and Irishwomen’, probably the first time in history that women are addressed directly as equals in a political manifesto. The same fate is meted out to the pledge to establish a government ‘elected by the suffrages of all its men and women’. Constance Markievicz, who is believed to have been the first to read aloud the Proclamation (at Liberty Hall, on Easter Monday morning) went on to become one of the first women in the modern world elected to parliament. She would become the first to wield a ministry. The dismissal, by omission, of the Proclamation’s historic gender equality significance, on the part of the ‘The Revolution Papers’ reviewer, is astonishing.

Ignored, also, are:

That the Proclamation’s progressive ideals were far from universally agreed in the early 20th century. Even a cursory look at the contemporary ‘Ulster Covenant’, would have confirmed this.

The fact that the Rising, and the ideals of the Proclamation, received a resounding endorsement at the first opportunity, the 1918 elections.

That the 1916 Proclamation inspired many of the liberation movements of the 20th century, acknowledged by the likes of Nehru in India, Che Guevara in Latin America and, more recently, Kader Asmal in South Africa (on receiving the French Légion d’Honneur, Dec 2005)

The effects of enforced partition by the imperial power (one of the signatories, James Connolly, warned that such an eventuality would produce a ‘carnival of reaction’ on both sides of the border)

Many of the less prominent articles were helpful and the reproduced newspapers and photographs fascinating. Oversights like the above-mentioned, could be avoided in the future if ‘The Revolutionary Papers’ were to consider an overhaul of its all-male editorial board and all-male contributors?

Billy Fitzpatrick

Ashfield Park

Terenure

Dublin 6W