Madam, - Surely it is time for a fitting memorial to the patriots of 1916 to be erected in our capital city? Plans for a memorial near the GPO should be made and a public competition for designs announced.
It would be fitting if the design for a monument were chosen and the memorial in place in time for the 100th anniversary of the Rising. It would also be fitting if a copy of the Proclamation were incorporated into the design so that all citizens could read it as they read Parnell's stirring words further up the street. - Yours, etc,
M.M. IRELAND, Priory Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Barry Walsh (April 20th) rightly exposes the self-aggrandising political agenda behind the Government's decision to reinstate a military parade to commemorate the 1916 Rising.
If the Taoiseach and his party are so proud of 1916 and all it symbolises, how on earth could they allow actual possessions of participants in the Rising to be sold off to the highest bidder at auction?
Surely, if they really cared about returning 1916 to the people of Ireland, they should have bought these items for the State and put them in a museum for everyone to see? - Yours, etc,
DECLAN CASHIN, Hogan Place, Dublin 2.
Madam, - That the 1916 leaders, particularly the executed leaders, were heroic goes without saying. That our present level of freedom arises from 1916, the executions and the subsequent threat of conscription also probably goes without saying. For me, Connolly and Pearse have always been inspirational figures. Their legacy also seems to me to be unquestionable.
Thus far I am at one with the Taoiseach and with the President, though I find it hard to see what inspiration any current leader of Fianna Fáil could claim to take from James Connolly.
It is clear that 1916 was justified from a political perspective. A transformation of attitudes in nationalist Ireland was achieved, and a political upheaval resulted.
But with all that said there is still a profoundly difficult question to answer, a question which is underlined by the decision of the EU and the US to punish the Palestinian people because they voted for an unreconstructed Hamas in a free, fair and democratic election. That is the question of when (if ever) political violence is morally justified.
Gandhi, like Martin Luther King, unequivocally rejected violence. The ANC resorted to it when (quite literally) every other form of struggle was denied to them. The Provisional IRA simply resorted to violence because it was always the way they had done things and because for 25 of the past 30 years democratic and moral niceties never troubled either them or their political allies. In each case moral choices were made and in the view of the vast majority of the people of this island the Provisional IRA made a choice which was as morally reprehensible as it was politically disastrous.
What of 1916? Were the conditions of the Irish people so appalling as to justify a resort to violence? Were we denied other routes to achieve our independence? Were we excluded from the media or from politics? Was discrimination against Catholics so deep-rooted and so widespread as to necessitate armed rebellion resulting in the death of large numbers of people?
I had hoped people such as the President would attempt to discuss these issues from the perspective of Christian morality. Sadly, from what I have seen, neither she nor anyone else did so. Instead the glorious outcomes have become a post hoc justification. And there is no doubt that the uprising did work from a political perspective. But you don't need a degree in moral theology to realise that beneficial outcomes do not confer retrospective morality on an immoral action. (If they did, both the bombing of Hiroshima and the Provo campaign could claim retrospective moral validity).
I have always been uneasy with 1916. I have always found its morality hard to justify. Today, as I watch the Palestinians being punished for even contemplating violence in the face of appalling oppression (far worse than anything that prevailed in Ireland in 1916), one can only conclude that victory, not morality, is what leads the consciences of many who would wish to guide us.
The end, it seems, justifies the means. - Yours, etc,
Senator BRENDAN RYAN, Seanad Éireann, Dublin 2.
Madam, - As a follow-up to Eddie Holt's column last Saturday on Geoffrey Wheatcroft's Observer article "The Evil Legacy of the Easter Rising", and as an insight into some unionist attitudes to the Rising, I offer the following anecdote.
Some weeks ago in Northern Ireland I asked my elderly aunt - a highly intelligent and well-travelled former teacher who used to support the Alliance Party but now votes DUP - what she thought of Bertie Ahern's attempt to link the commemorations of the Rising and the Battle of the Somme as a gesture of inclusiveness towards unionists.
Her response was breathtaking: "It would be like commemorating something with the Nazis," she said. - Yours, etc,
ANDY POLLAK, Palmerston Road, Dublin 6.
Madam, - I was astonished that the Rev David Frazer of Laytown, Co Meath (April 19th) should "celebrate the bravery of the men and women of 1916". Is this a personal reflection of the Rev Frazer, or has the Church of Ireland totally abandoned the following injunction of our Lord Jesus Christ?
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:27-31, NIV.)
Perhaps his reference to a "British state that is rotten to its very core" is a reflection of the lingering resentment that the instrument of the British state, the Church of Ireland, has been disestablished? - Yours, etc,
Rev BRIAN KENNAWAY, Crumlin, Co Antrim.
Madam, - My viewing of televised coverage of the parade to commemorate the start of Ireland winning its independence was not inconvenienced by the glare of bright sunshine outside, as this was blocked by the British army barracks five metres from my window.
Sorry to be a bore. - Yours, etc,
MAIREAD O'NEILL, Ballymurphy, Belfast.
Madam, - I suggest that the 1916 commemoration is as much about leadership as it is about nationalism. We are commemorating leaders - men and women who inspired another generation of leaders who played a part in developing the Irish State as we know it. It was these leaders and many, many others who, not just at a national political level but also at local level, began to take the gun out of Irish politics.
To commemorate 1916 is not only an opportunity to recall a particular form of leadership but also to instil or foster the value of leadership in our own generation and in the children who will lead the next. The commemoration is a chance for children in primary schools to see a contemporary relevance - that leadership in local communities is a valuable and vital aspect of society.
That leadership may manifest itself in volunteering to help local community groups or indeed to form them, in joining sporting bodies, political parties, or simply helping the elderly. - Yours, etc,
CHRIS ANDREWS, Rathgar Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6.