Let’s celebrate our constitutional tradition
1916 was not mandated. Not only that, but it was countermanded by Eoin MacNeill, chief of staff of the Irish Volunteers, and opposed by Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Féin.
The vast majority of Irish people did not want sacrificial politics. They knew that Ireland would get Home Rule when World War I ended. As John Bruton said last year, the inevitable outcome of Home Rule would have been the establishment of a republic, as was later achieved in India with virtually no violence.
