This book explores the official 50th anniversary commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising in the Irish Republic how the government reinvented the message of 1916 through the jubilee celebrations; the organization of various unofficial commemorations in Northern Ireland; and the significance of these for nationalist and unionist politics in the mid-1960s. The book also examines the 1966 anniversary celebration of the Rising from the perspectives of drama, performance, youth culture, and history.
In light of its upcoming centenary in 2016, the time seems ripe to ask: why, how and in what ways has memory of Ireland’s 1916 Rising persisted over the decades? In pursuing answers to these questions, which are not only of historical concern, but of contemporary political and cultural importance, this book breaks new ground by offering a wide-ranging exploration of the making and remembrance of the story of 1916 in modern times. It draws together the interlocking dimensions of history-making, commemoration and heritage to reveal the Rising’s undeniable influence upon modern Ireland’s evolution, both instantaneous and long-term. In addition to furnishing a history of the tumultuous events of Easter 1916, which rattled the British Empire’s foundations and enthused independence movements elsewhere, Ireland’s 1916 Rising mainly concentrates on illuminating the evolving relationship between the Irish past and present. In doing so, it unearths the far-reaching political impacts and deep-seated cultural legacies of the actions taken by the rebels, as evidenced by the most pivotal episodes in the Rising’s commemoration and the myriad varieties of heritage associated with its memory. This volume also presents a wider perspective on the ways in which conceptualisations of heritage, culture and identity in Westernised societies are shaped by continuities and changes in politics, society and economy. In a topical conclusion, the book examines the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to the Garden of Remembrance in 2011, and looks to the Rising’s 100th anniversary by identifying the common ground that can be found in pluralist and reconciliatory approaches to remembrance.
We know from our literary histories that there was a movement called the Irish Literary Renaissance, and that Yeats was at its head. We know from our political histories that there is now a Republic of Ireland because of a nationalistic movement that, militarily, began with the insurrection of Easter Week, 1916. But what do these two movements have to do with one another?... Because I came to history with literary eyes, I could not help seeing history in terms and shapes of imaginative experience. Thus Movement, Myth, and Image came to be the way in which the nature of the insurrection appeared to me. This method of analyzing historical event as if it were a work of art is not altogether as inappropriate as it might seem when the historical event happens to be a revolution. The Irish revolutionaries lived as if they were in a work of art, and this inability to tell the difference between sober reality and the realm of imagination is perhaps one very important characteristic of a revolutionary. The tragedy of actuality comes from the fact that when, in a revolution, history is made momentarily into a work of art, human beings become the material that must be ordered, molded, or twisted into shape. (from the preface)
One hundred years ago, Easter 1916, Irish revolutionaries rose against the British Empire proclaiming a Republic from the steps of the General Post Office in Dublin. The men and women of the Easter Rising were defeated by the overwhelming force of the British Army, in five days of intense fighting. Their leaders were executed. But the Easter Rising lit a fire that ended with the whole country turning against Westminster’s rule, and founding a nation. But today, the heirs to the Irish state are embarrassed about 1916. They are ashamed that their state owes its origins to a revolution. Along with academics and other commentators in the press and on television they dismiss the Rising as the work of violent fanatics, and the defeat of constitutional politics. Who’s Afraid of the Easter Rising? explains why today’s Dublin elite are recoiling from the origins of their state in a popular struggle. Where the critics paint the Rising as an armed conspiracy, we explain that it was in fact a revolt against war; not a militaristic upsurge, but the first challenge to the awful slaughter of the First World War. The Statesmen of Europe sacrificed millions upon the altar of war. Their recruiting sergeants in Ireland, Edward Carson and John Redmond sent 200,000 Irishmen into the slaughter and nearly 50,000 were killed. The Easter Rising drew a halt to British recruitment, and the blow to the Empire was the first crack in a growing revolt against the war, followed by the Russian Revolution in 1917, and the German revolution the following year – which ended the conflict. The Easter Rising was an inspiration to those who were challenging the Empires of Europe, from India to Vietnam, from New Zealand to Moscow; it was an inspiration to British activists like John Maclean and Sylvia Pankhurst; and it was an inspiration to the Irish men and women who rose up against British rule to free their nation.
Introduction by Garret Fitzgerald. This book seeks to interpret the events of Easter Week 1916 as the central defining event of a 'long revolution' in Irish history. The origins of the long revolution lie in the second half of the nineteenth century, and its legacy is still being played out in the first years of the twenty-first century. Acknowledged experts on specific topics seek to explore the layered domestic and international, political, legal and moral aspects of this uniquely influential and controversial event. Contributors are: Rory O' Dwyer, Michael Wheatley, Brendan O'Shea and Gerry White, D.G. Boyce, Francis M. Carroll, Rosemary Cullen Owens, Jérôme aan de Wiel, Adrian Hardiman, Keith Jeffery, Mary McAleese, Owen McGee, Seamus Murphy and Brian P. Murphy.
Even those who know a great deal about the Easter Rising may not know that there were temporary ceasefires in the St Stephen's Green area, to allow the park attendants to feed the Green's ducks. Few know that the first shots of the rising were actually fired near Portlaoise and not in Dublin or indeed that both sides issued receipts: the rebels for food, the British for handcuffs. It features excerpts from a previously unpublished diary written by a member of the Jacob's garrison; the story of how rebel communications (being sent in a tin can from rooftop to rooftop) were interrupted by a British crackshot sniper and many other remarkable facts. 50 Things you didn't know about 1916 is a treasure trove of trivia and information that will appeal to the avid student of 1916 as well as the casual reader.
A collection of new research on neglected aspects of the 1916 Rising by the top 1916 scholars. The book examines the impact of the Rising within the United Kingdom, British Empire, North America, and Australasia, and provides a fresh context to the new work on key figures such as James Connolly and Padraig Pearse. Contents: Introduction --- Ruan O'Donnell - The Limerick Volunteers and 1916 --- John O'Callaghan - Vanguard of the Revolution? The Irish Citizen Army, 1916 --- Ann Matthews - 'A Land Beyond the Sea': Irish and Scottish Republicans in Dublin, 1916' --- Mairtin Sean O Cathain - The British Labour and Socialist Movement and the 1916 Rising --- David Granville - Antipodean Irish Catholic Responses to the 1916 Rising --- Rory Sweetman - 'The Wilson Administration and the 1916 Rising --- Bernadette Whelan - Journees Sanglantes/ Days of Blood: The French Press and the Easter Rising --- Ian McKeane - The Easter Rising and the First World War. A Contextual Study --- Priscilla Metscher and James Connolly - 'A People That Did Not Exist?: Reflections on Some Sources and Contexts for Patrick Pearse's Militant Nationalism --- Roisin Ni Ghairbhi - 1916: Insurrection or Rebellion? Making Judgements --- Peter Berresford Ellis - 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley': Reflections on the Writing of Irish History in the Period of the Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence --- Brian P Murphy - Rethinking the Republic: The Republican Movement and 1966 --- Matt Treacy - Appendices: The 1916 Proclamation. Introduction to C. Desmond Greaves, 1916 as History, The Myth of Blood Sacrifice --- Anthony Coughlan - Nominal Roll of the Irish Citizen's Army.
On March 1, 1966, the voters of Tucson approved the Pueblo Center Redevelopment Project—Arizona’s first major urban renewal project—which targeted the most densely populated eighty acres in the state. For close to one hundred years, tucsonenses had created their own spatial reality in the historical, predominantly Mexican American heart of the city, an area most called “la calle.” Here, amid small retail and service shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues, they openly lived and celebrated their culture. To make way for the Pueblo Center’s new buildings, city officials proceeded to displace la calle’s residents and to demolish their ethnically diverse neighborhoods, which, contends Lydia Otero, challenged the spatial and cultural assumptions of postwar modernity, suburbia, and urban planning. Otero examines conflicting claims to urban space, place, and history as advanced by two opposing historic preservationist groups: the La Placita Committee and the Tucson Heritage Foundation. She gives voice to those who lived in, experienced, or remembered this contested area, and analyzes the historical narratives promoted by Anglo American elites in the service of tourism and cultural dominance. La Calle explores the forces behind the mass displacement: an unrelenting desire for order, a local economy increasingly dependent on tourism, and the pivotal power of federal housing policies. To understand how urban renewal resulted in the spatial reconfiguration of downtown Tucson, Otero draws on scholarship from a wide range of disciplines: Chicana/o, ethnic, and cultural studies; urban history, sociology, and anthropology; city planning; and cultural and feminist geography.
