Reform Movement needs to know where our nation came from

MR Robin Bury in a recent letter made a wide-ranging attack on the 1916 Rising and its leaders (Irish Examiner, February 13). Perhaps he or some other members of the Reform Movement would like to deal with the following points.

1. No democracy or mandate applied in 1916, since women had no votes. The first time women were regarded as human beings at all from the political point of view was in the declaration of independence at Easter 1916, which was directed to” Irishmen and Irishwomen”.

2. The rising resulted in the collapse in recruitment of cannon-fodder for the British war machine and thus saved thousands of Irish lives.