Evening Echo ¸ 14 April 2006. Note should also be made here of the party’s decision to mark the centenary of the foundation of Sinn Féin in 1906, as well as the formation in October 2006 by its members of the Collins 22 society, whose function was to preserve the memory of Michael Collins. See the Irish Times , 26 November 2005.
See the ‘Foreword’ by Pat Rabbitte in the collection of essays, Liberty 1916–2006 , edited by Pádraig Yeates and jointly produced by the Labour party and SIPTU, April 2006, p. 5.
It is worth noting here that some weeks after the Easter commemoration events, SIPTU announced that it was to assist in the funding of a feature film on the life of James Connolly ( Irish Times , 13 May 2006 and Village , 1–7 June 2006). A full listing of the activities undertaken under the auspices of the Liberty project can be found in the ‘Campaigns’ section of the Labour party’s website, www.labour.ie . The SDLP was the only party with elected representatives in Northern Ireland to send a full delegation, including its party leader, to the parade. Finally, one should note the good-humoured re-enactment of the march of the Irish Citizen Army from Liberty Hall to the GPO, undertaken on Monday 17 April by the Dublin City Pavement Pageants Collective, with the willing participation of Labour TDs Liz McManus and Joe Costello, and the independent TD Tony Gregory.
Irish Times , 18 February 2006. The call was echoed by the Conservative party in Britain, Belfast Telegraph , 3 April 2006.
Irish Independent , 23 February 2006
See, for example, O’Riordan, Manus and Devine, Francis, James Connolly, Liberty Hall and the 1916 Rising , ILHS, Studies in Irish labour history no 11, Dublin, 2006, and O’Riordan, Manus, James Connolly reassessed: the Irish and European context , Aubane, Cork, 2006.
See the comments by the party’s leader, Trevor Sergeant, during his address to the party’s annual conference, that the government was a ‘disgrace to the men and women of 1916 and the principles of sovereignty and equality for which they died’. Irish Independent , 25 March 2006.
Irish Examiner , 17 April 2006.
Dáil Debates , vol. dcxv, 23 February 2006, cols. 967–68.
Ibid ., vol. dcxviii, 25 April 2006, col. 15.
During the spring of 2006 An Phoblacht , the party’s newspaper, noted the activities undertaken to mark the Rising, although more attention was devoted to the party’s commemoration of the twenty fifth anniversary of the hunger strikes of 1981.
Irish Times , 4 February 2006.
Irish Times , 9 February 2006.
Irish Independent , 17 March 2006.
Irish Times , 11 February 2006.
Sunday Independent , 26 February 2006.
Ibid ., 16 April 2004.
Evening Echo , 11 April 2006.
Sunday Independent , 16 April 2006.
The party was represented by 2 MPs, a TD and an MEP.
Sunday Independent , 19 February 2006.
Dáil Debates , vol. dcxviii, 25 April 2006, col. 12. A less sympathetic response to the predicament of the provisional movement when faced by the state’s ceremonies was articulated by Fine Gael Senator Brian Hayes, who remarked: ‘Was it not great to see, for once, the goose stepping black beret brigade put into the second division?’ Seanad Debates , vol. clxxxiii, 26 April 2006, col. 674.
Connell, Joseph, Where’s where in Dublin: a directory of historic locations, 1913–23 , Four Courts, Dublin, 2006.
In Carlow, for example, a ceremony was held to honour the memory of Michael O’Hanrahan, one of the executed leaders of 1916 and a native of the town. It consisted of a laying of wreaths, the playing of the national anthem and the last post, and a minute’s silence. See Carlow People , 30 May 2006 and the Nationalist , 2 June 2006.
Reviews of the books mentioned here appeared in many different newspapers and journals during the period in question. Among the more noteworthy are those that appeared in the Guardian , 24 September 2005; Irish Independent , 15 April 2006, Irish Times , 13 May 2006, and History Ireland , vol. xiv, no. 2, March–April 2006, pp. 63–72.
Foy, Michael and Barton, Brian, The Easter Rising , Sutton, Stroud, 2004.
Townshend, Charles, Easter 1916: the Irish rebellion , Allen Lane, London, 2005.
Coogan, Tim Pat, 1916: the Easter Rising , Phoenix, London, 2005.
Hegarty, Shane and O’Toole, Fintan, The Irish Times book of the 1916 Rising , Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 2006. It is a pity that the newspaper did not see fit to re-issue its superb 1916 rebellion handbook, which contains enormous amounts of otherwise difficult to obtain source material, including transcripts of the royal commissions into the Rising and the shooting of Francis Sheehy Skeffington. The work initially appeared in 1916, before being re-issued by Mourne River press, with an introduction by Damien Kiberd, in 1998.
Githens-Mazer, Jonathan, Myths and memories of the Easter Rising , IAP, Dublin, 2006.
Moran, James, Staging the Easter Rising: 1916 as theatre , CUP, Cork, 2005.
Redmond-Howard, L.G., Six days of the Irish republic , Aubane, Cork, 2006. Mention might also be made here of the pamphlet, also published by Aubane, Was 1916 a crime? , which contains correspondence on many aspects of the Rising culled from the Village magazine between July and December 2005.
Cronin, Seán, Our own red blood: the story of the 1916 Rising , IFP, Dublin, 2006.
Ferguson, Stephen, GPO staff in 1916 , An Post, Dublin, 2006; Jeffery, Keith, The GPO and the Easter Rising , IAP, Dublin, 2006. See also the Irish News , 6 April 2006.
Wheatley, Michael, Nationalism and the Irish party: provincial Ireland 1910–1916 , OUP, Oxford, 2005; Campbell, Fergus, Land and revolution: nationalist politics in the west of Ireland 1891–1921 , OUP, Oxford, 1921.
Coleman, Marie, County Longford and the Irish revolution 1910–1923 , IAP, Dublin, 2003.
White, Gerry and O’Shea, Brendan, ‘Baptised in blood’: the formation of the Cork Brigade of the Irish Volunteers 1913–1916 , Mercier, Cork, 2005.
Hegarty Thorne, Kathleen, ‘They put the flag aflyin’: the Roscommon Volunteers 1916–1923 , Generation, Oregon, 2005.
Ebenezer, Lyn, Frongoch and the birth of the IRA , Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, Llanrwst, 2006. Even though it can hardly be said to have been inspired by the anniversary of the Rising, having been many years in gestation, the utmost praise is also due here for Seán McConville’s stunning Irish political prisoners, 1848–1922: theatres of war , Routledge, London, 2003, which has four chapters (pp. 405–605) dealing with aspects of the prison experiences, in all their varied incarnations, of the Easter insurgents.
Nevin, Donal, James Connolly: ‘a full life’ , Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 2005.
Dudley Edwards, Ruth, Patrick Pearse: the triumph of failure , IAP, Dublin, 2006.
Henry, William, Supreme sacrifice: the story of Éamonn Ceannt 1881–1916 , Mercier, Cork, 2005; MacAtasney, Gerard, Seán MacDiarmada: the mind of the revolution , Drumlin, Manorhamilton, 2004.
Daly, Mary E. (ed.), Roger Casement in Irish and world history , RIA, Dublin, 2006.
Ó Brolchain, Honor (ed.), Plunkett Dillon, Geraldine, All in the blood: a memoir of the Plunkett family, the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence , Farmar, Dublin, 2006.
White, Captain Jack, Misfit: a revolutionary life , Livewire, Dublin, 2005.
O’Keeffe, Jane O’Hea and O’Keeffe, Maurice, Recollections of 1916 and its aftermath: echoes from history, Irish life and lore series , privately published, Tralee, 2005.
It should be noted, also, that Queen’s Belfast had, in conjunction with Humanities Institute in UCD, organised a conference on the theme of the fiftieth anniversary commemoration of the Easter Rising in June 2005. It is understood that the papers will be published as part of a special edition of Irish Political Studies during 2007.
A large number of schools also organised events to mark the Rising. The author was privileged to address one such occasion, at Ballincollig community school, on 24 April 2006. The dignified tone of the occasion, which incorporated music and poetry readings associated with both the Rising and the First World War, was a tribute to the staff and students involved.
RTÉ’s website, www.rte.ie , provided extended excerpts from the station’s output during the 1966 commemoration. The national broadcaster also released The story of Easter Week, a compact disc containing interviews with participants in the Rising conducted by it over the years.
For a review of some of the radio programmes broadcast in the week leading up to the military parade see the Irish Times , 15 April 2006.
See, for example, the editorials in the Irish Times , 11 February 2006, the Sunday Independent , 12 February, Irish Independent , 15 April, and the hostile tenor of successive numbers of the Irish edition of the Sunday Times in February.
The glowing editorials in the Sunday Times , 16 April, and the Irish Independent on Monday 17 April are particularly interesting examples of this change.
For an excellent piece on the arts and the Rising see the article by Ian Kilroy in the Irish Examiner , 13 April 2006. Also see Liam Ó Muirthile’s article in the same edition on the importance of the Irish language in the revolutionary era.
See the interview with the author in the Irish Times , 20 April 2006, and the review in the Guardian , 29 April 2006.
See, for example, the Irish Independent , 16 March, for details of portraits by Francis Duffy of leading women of the Rising that were about to be displayed at the Art Ireland exhibition at the RDS; and Ibid ., 12 April, for Gerard Mannix Flynn’s installation depicting the Proclamation in English, Irish, Polish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic, as displayed on Leeson Street, Dublin. At a slight tangent one should also note the release by An Post of a special commemorative stamp to mark the occasion, designed by Ger Garland and incorporating an image of the GPO.
See Village , 23–29 March and the Sunday Times , 16 April 2006 for more details on the background to the shooting of the film, and its re-release.
Irish Times , 11 December 2006. It appears likely that, in the build up to the centenary of the Rising, the GPO itself will be converted into a national monument dedicated to the events of 1916.
See reports in the press on 13 April 2006.
For a report on the event see the Irish Examiner , 10 May 2006. See also the expression of hope by Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú that Kent’s remains would at some point be re-interred in ‘a more appropriate and significant location’. Seánad Debates , vol. clxxxiii, 9 May 2006, col. 954. Note might also be made here of the marking, by Conradh na Gaeilge Trá Lí, of the execution of Sir Roger Casement, on 3 August.