This year we celebrate the 85th anniversary of the 1916 Rising and the 75th anniversary of the foundation of Fianna Fail. Both fascinating events central to any understanding of modern Ireland, both will provoke debate and argument, both will spur new and necessary historical analysis.
For most of the period between the 50th anniversary of the Rising in 1966 and today, we have lived in the shadow of violence in the North of Ireland and this has inevitably shaped much of the analysis of 1916. The use of violence by the men and women of 1916 led many to spurn it. Now, in the aftermath of the Good Friday agreement, it is perhaps easier for us to be more objective. It is possible for us to view the Easter Rising in a wider European context and in the light of larger trends elsewhere.
When judged in this context, we find that militarism and nationalism were hardly peculiar to Ireland. Across the continent, in the period before and during the first World War, militarism was rife.
From young boys to grown men, all Europe was donning uniforms for one reason or another and bleating their way sheep-like towards war.
This was also the time of emergent nationalism all over Europe. In each country which received self-determination after the first World War, there were nationalist movements similar to those in Ireland. More often than not, these movements also focused on linguistic and cultural revival, just like their Irish counterparts.
THEIR glorification of the Gael and the Irish race was also far from peculiar. In the decade after 1890 especially, the Americans believed in manifest destiny, while in Britain, it was the "white man's burden'. France, Germany and Belgium had their own versions. The Irish variant, it must be said, was hardly as extreme.
The men and women of 1916 have left us their manifesto: the Proclamation. Its core idea is self-determination.
Since 1916 this idea has become a recognised principle of international law. Indeed, through the Downing Street Declaration, the British government has recognised the right of the Irish people as a whole to self-determination, subject to the important qualification that the practical exercise of this right, in relation to Northern Ireland, is qualified by unionist consent.
It is the social ideas of the 1916 republicans which are perhaps of most enduring interest. The very statement that the "Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens", or that it was addressed to "Irishmen and Irishwomen", was radical and progressive. Nobody in 2001 should be ashamed to have this document shown in their household.
In the years after 1916, it was not always possible to realise these republican ideals. When Fianna Fail was founded in May 1926, the establishment parties of Labour and Cumann na nGaedhal had done little to effect real social change.
WHILE the history books emphasise issues such as the oath, the Constitution and the Treaty ports, it is important to recognise that much of the reasons behind early Fianna Fail success related to the social policies of the party.
In the 1932 election for example, Sean Lemass was quick to stress that unemployment was the main electoral issue. The party promised and implemented a housing programme. The country also benefited from increases in social spending. These stances were attractive to Labour whose votes, in the 1932 and 1933 elections, transferred heavily to Fianna Fail.
I would not claim for one moment that thereafter Fianna Fail created some republican Nirvana in 1930s Ireland - it didn't. From the 1930s, with what resources were available, there was much social progress in the areas of health, education and housing - with the addition of my usual mantra: much remains to be done.
Hopefully this year's anniversaries will attract a wide audience through debate and greater analysis of the vision and motivation of my parents' brave and extraordinary generation. This debate may include on its agenda the realignment of our two larger political parties, many years on from the split.
Today, the late and great John Kelly's vision of the remerging of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael remains just that - a vision. On that issue and indeed other issues, he was a man way before his time.