IN 1966 few feared to speak of Easter Week. Three boxes of State Papers now available to public in the National Archives, Bishop Street, refer to the golden jubilee of the 1916 Rising.
An official commemoration committee chaired by the Taoiseach, Sean Lemass, was formed early in 1965. Vinny Byrne, who had been a member of Collins's squad, wrote that he would be "priveledged" to join the committee. The secretary of the Government, Dr N.S. O Nuallain, noted on January 26th: "I would be rather nervous about recommending too elaborate a programme just in case it might turn out to be a flop."
Nevertheless, a major programme of events was planned for April 10th-24th, 1966. These took place smoothly enough except Archbishop George Otto Simms was locked out, inadvertently, from the opening of the Garden of Remembrance; and Gen Richard Mulcahy complained it was "inelegant" not to invite wives of the platform party to the unveiling of the Thomas Davis statue.
The only grouse of Phillis Bean Ui Cheallaigh - wife of the former president - "was the television version of the Rising as given in Insurrection. Perhaps you did not see it," she wrote to Mr Lemass. "They made the Volunteers behave like a rabble, untrained, ill assorted, couldn't walk or march or talk and they all looked so gloomy and dismal. And my girlish recollection was that you all looked like gods, brave, heroic, handsome young men and, sure enough, 50 years, later I see and know that I was right."
There was no shortage of ideas beforehand. A veteran of the GPO garrison, Donough O'Meara, suggested that the cost of a proposed banquet be used to combat world hunger, to bring home to this materialistic age "some of the spirit of sacrifice of those bygone days".
Dom Bernard O'Dea, of Glenstal Abbey, said: "It may be argued that one of the motives of the jubilee is to win the interest of the youth in the heroism of 1916. This is a worthy motive but ... the thinking youth are contemptuous of the inconsistent, they will not submit to an emotional unreality fostered by people they no longer believe in."
Pearse would find the children of Connacht in English industrial cities on the 50th anniversary of the Rising. Father O'Dea suggested commemorative scholarships to university level, with a percentage reserved for the children of emigrants.
The Irish Times said "the best present that this 1916 commemoration committee could give to the nation would be an increased interest and an increased impetus in the educational field". On September 10th, 1966, the Minister for Education, Donogh O'Malley, promised free post primary education in a year's time.
The leader of Fine Gael, Liam Cosgrave, wrote to Mr Lemass on September 7th, 1965, asking that before two publications on the Rising were sent to the printers, "we should be given an opportunity of seeing them, as it would most undesirable that there, should be any controversy in connection with this commemoration about their contents". The Taoiseach replied that Mr Cosgrave's request would be brought to the attention of the relevant sub committee.
To avoid any suggestion that the government was trying to make party political capital out of the occasion, Mr Lemass decided (January 6th, 1966/S8114B) that speech making at official ceremonies should be left to President de Valera. The opposition may not have been entirely satisfied with this arrangement.
SINN FEIN tried to organise a "freedom train" from Dublin to Belfast, with a parade up the Falls' Road to Milltown cemetery and an oration by Cathal Goulding.
A "strictly confidential" letter from the Office of the Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, on February 22nd, quoted the view of the Garda Siochana: "There will be trouble in Belfast if the train runs opposition is mounting even if the travellers do, not provoke trouble the opposition will, the train should not be provided if at all possible." The minister considered the plan was "for IRA organisational purposes".
Yet when the Northern authorities banned the excursion, a Department of the Taoiseach memorandum stated frostily on, April 15th: "Mr Berry, Secretary, Department of Justice, says that the Six County announcement has come as a surprise to him. On Wednesday, the 13th instant, there were confidential talks in Dublin at high police level and no specific information which, might justify the Six County action was mentioned."
When Ballina Urban District Council called on the Taoiseach to release all republican prisoners, a Merrion Street mandarin asked: "May I merely acknowledge attached letter and send copy to D/Justice?" Mr Lemass initialled: "No reply and no action."