Meaning of 1916 hidden, school told

Much of the history of 1916 has failed to properly engage with its anti-imperial dimension and, in the name of "national security", the British Empire's image has been carefully managed through sustained propaganda, the Desmond Greaves Summer School in Dublin heard at the weekend.

Dr Angus Mitchell, of the University of Limerick, told the school the use of State secrecy and control of archives obstructs a clearer anti-imperial context of the 1916 rising. He said the involvement of Roger Casement particularly "alters the parameters of its meaning from a national outbreak into an anti-colonial struggle".

The summer school, held in the Irish Labour History Museum at Beggars Bush Barracks, also heard criticism of commemorations of the 1914-1918 war. Manus O'Riordan, Siptu's head of research, said that as one who had a relative killed at the Somme, he had no objection to those who wished to commemorate such war dead without any hidden political agenda.

However, he said what was now being inserted was a celebration of British imperialism's infamous war. Irish workers had been offered up in a blood sacrifice by John Redmond through his support for what Connolly designated Britain's "War upon the German nation", he said.