Defeat of 1916 ideals led to backward society
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The 1916 Proclamation and the Sinn Féin Programme of the First Dáil, which was based on it, were very progressive documents and are still relevant (and remain to be implemented) today. The leaders of the Rising were also visionaries.
Padraig Pearse had radical innovative ideas on education which he promulgated in The Murder Machine booklet and put into practice in Scoil Éanna.
Constance Markievicz campaigned for women, children and the poor, again taking practical action in setting up soup kitchens for starving workers during the 1913 lock-out, founding Fianna Éireann and becoming the first woman minister in the world.
Most visionary of all was James Connolly who, apart from organising workers in Belfast and Dublin and opposing imperialism internationally, accurately predicted that the partition of Ireland would lead to ‘a carnival of reaction, north and south’.
And, indeed, it was the defeat of the ideals of 1916 caused by partition and the civil war that led to the imposition of a backward, conservative society in the north and south of Ireland.
Dessie Ellis
19 Dunsink Rd
Finglas
Dublin 11
