Lessons for all in republican literature
If he read the accounts of veterans from 1916 to 1923 he would realise that republicans were often bemused at being mistaken for "shinners".
I'm not sure whether he has Sinn Féin or the broader republican movement in mind when he accuses them of being cultural philistines and of never having produced literature with profound insight into the human condition.
If he intends Sinn Féin, what political party has ever produced literature on a par with the Bible or Chaucer per se?
If he intends the broader republican movement, there is such a body of literature for example, Terence McSwiney's Principles of Freedom and Ernie O'Malley's books.
The 1916 Proclamation contains several of the same key principles as the American Declaration of Independence: the right of a people to direct their own destiny and the establishment of an egalitarian society. This shouldn't surprise us since Irish republicans drew much inspiration from the ideals of both the French and American revolutions.
It may be argued that much Irish republican literature is too local to be of universal significance, but this is the view of those that have not actually read it. Where would such a view place Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, which was written in a local context yet it contains lessons for all?
Nick Folley
36 Ardcarrig
Carrigaline
Co Cork
