NEXT year sees the unveiling of a national 1798 Centre in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, thanks to a grant of £1.6 million from the Operational Programme for Tourism (the total cost will be £2.3 million).
"It will explain and educate in a comprehensive way," says Nicholas Furlong, president of the Wexford Historical Society. "We want to remove unnecessary baggage, like sectarian divisions. The rebellion in Wexford divided both Catholics and Protestants. Families had members fighting on either side."
There will be exhibits on what happened in Ireland during the rebellion, not forgetting the international dimension. "You have to remember the geopolitical stakes involved. Ireland was a strategic piece of real estate which England did not want to lose to France," says Furlong.
There will also be a `98 Trail, incorporating key sites such as Boolavogue and Oulart. "There is a `98 Committee in every parish, so there will be a lot of local events," says Wexford historian Brian Cleary. "In Boolavogue they are doing up - the house where Father John Murphy used to live."
He is excited about the reconvening of the Wexford Senate, which originally met after the foundation of the short lived 1798 Wexford Republic: "The Senate had 500 members, and a governing Council of four Catholics and four Protestants. It was an attempt to build a nation to which all men could subscribe. It was like what John Hume calls `an agreed Ireland' today."
To raise extra funds for the `98 centre, each seat on the Senate costs £2,000. As with the original Senate, there will be representatives from every parish in Wexford, and fund raising at local level is ongoing to raise the money. Members of the Irish diaspora have been invited to take part and so far there has been a very healthy response.
A script for a proposed memorial at, Scullabogue has been composed, expressing "remorse" at this "tragic outrage". "It is an apology and a gesture of reconciliation from the people of Wexford for the atrocity of Scullabogue which was an aberration from the principles of the Republic," says Brian Cleary.
The Society for the Commemoration of the United Irishmen in Ulster is organising lectures, events and publications in 1998, according to its secretary, the librarian of the Linenhall Library in Belfast. John Gray. "Our society is cross community, non political and inclusive," he notes. The society will also serve as "a point of information for what other people are doing", he adds.
The convenor of the education committee of the Grand Orange Lodge notes that the lodge has plans for a "service Thanksgiving to commemorate the batt of Antrim" and a "drumhead service (involving "a parade and a service mark the battle of Ballynahinch. "This not triumphalist, but is a recognition of the good men of `98 who were motivate by desire for civil liberty in an idealistic movement defeated because it became sectarian." The Order has already published Murder Without Sin, taken from the writings of Orangeman Ogle Robert Gowan - son of Hunter Gowan, leader of the notorious yeoman unit, the Black Mob, in north Co Wexford - originally - published in 1859 (see main article).
Sinn Fein will be organising a number of events, says a spokesperson, and also some publications, but details have not been finalised yet.
The Dublin 1798 Commemoration Committee will hold a series of lectures, in universities and in conjunction with local history societies, says its secretary, historian Tommy Graham. "We want to restore St Catherine's Church in the Liberties as a historical centre focusing on 1798 and Robert Emmet." There will be a Chieftains concert in the NCH next January and, in May 98, a Jean Michel Jarre concert in Smithfield Market (where the Dublin United Irishmen were meant to assemble).
The General Humbert Summer School which takes place every August in Killala, Co Mayo, commemorates the landing of General Humbert there in August 1798 with 1,100 French soldiers.
"In 1998 the school will hold a major symposium on the nature of Republicanism in 1798 - which meant the freedom of the common man - including the French connection," says John Cooney, director of the school.
An international history conference on 1798 will take place in both Dublin and Belfast in May 1998. There will be conferences at Boston College and at Notre Dame University in the US, one in Brest in France and one in Australia.
The Government's 1798 commemoration Committee, chaired by Minister of State Avril Doyle, is devising a national programme which will be ready in the coming months. Tentative plans include a school essay competition and assisting in the production of a documentary. Once the national programme has been decided, the committee will be able to offer support to some local projects.
