Government rejects bid for annual 1916 bank holiday

The Government has rejected proposals for an extra bank holiday on April 24th each year to commemorate the events of 1916 as “neither appropriate not advisable”.

Minister for Heritage Heather Humphreys said the commemoration of the Rising traditionally took place on the Easter bank holiday weekend and the centenary events "clearly demonstrated" that the "existing Easter Monday bank holiday can provide the appropriate space for a major public celebration to mark these significant and important commemorative events".

Ms Humphreys also said the Department of Jobs estimated a potential loss in productivity of €396 million, as she rejected the Public Holidays (Lá na Poblachta) Bill introduced by Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh.

Mr Ó Snodaigh has raised the idea of a new national bank holiday since 2012. He told the Dáil he believed it should be designated Republic Day, marked on April 24th each year, the anniversary of the start of the Rising.

The Dublin South-Central TD said he would be happy if the commitment was made now but not implemented until perhaps 2019, in order to give businesses time to adapt.

Mr Ó Snodaigh noted comments last week by Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes that additional public holidays should be granted to acknowledge the sacrifices made during the economic crash.

He quoted Mr Hayes’s comments that when pay restoration was dominating national debate, it was time to look at public holidays, where Ireland was in second-last place with nine compared to an EU average of 11. Mr Hayes pointed to Finland’s 15 and Malta and Spain’s 14 days, a full week more public holidays than Irish workers.

Republican ideals

Mr Ó Snodaigh said it should not just be an additional national holiday, but a specific Republic Day to “acknowledge the sacrifices of the men, women and children who kept this nation alive for many centuries, of those who fought to establish the Republic and of the need to implement the republican ideals set out in the Proclamation, which is a seminal document”.

Ms Humphreys, however, expressed concern about the “ambiguous language” in the Bill referring to the people who over the “centuries of occupation of Ireland by a foreign power, gave their lives and liberty to pursue the freedom of the Irish nation”.

The legislation calls for a programme of events on the day in each of the 32 counties but the Minister said this would not be within the Constitution or within the inclusive principles adopted by the Government for the decade of commemorations.

“It is very important that the State takes a balanced approach in negotiating this complex territory and in my view this Bill could significantly undermine this approach,” she said.

Negative sense

Fianna Fáil’s Éamon Ó Cuív said the Government was right to stick with Easter Sunday and Monday for the event. He proposed that in recognition of the centenary year “that we would designate Easter Monday as Lá na Saoirse”.

“I am purposely not using ‘Lá na Poblachta’ because for some that might be emotive in the negative sense but all are happy and comfortable with the idea of independence.”

He said that “if we were to make a holiday of April 24th, we would have a guaranteed holiday on March 17th, April 24th and a holiday somewhere between May 1st and 8th, depending on when the first Monday of May fell”.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said there should be a public holiday on February 1st, St Brigid's Day "to celebrate our feminine tradition and side".

He said “the longest gap between our holidays is in that period between St Stephen’s Day and St Patrick’s Day: two men on either side. That long period without a holiday could well rightly be interspersed with a break around February 1st each year.”

He said St Brigid was “the core patron saint to our country”.

He said it was not only a Catholic or Christian tradition “but also she is wider, broader and bigger than that because she brings us back into prehistory to the festival of Brigid, a Celtic goddess”.