CIARAN EGAN,
Sir, - It is a terrible shame that the Easter Rising of 1916 is not marked with the respect it deserves. On Easter Monday the only event was a "rally" at the General Post Office on O'Connell Street organised by Sinn Féin. Surely people should be able to mark the anniversary without tying themselves to Sinn Féin or pipe bands in combat gear.
The French have Bastille Day, the Americans the Fourth of July. The government should mark the Easter Rising in similar fashion. Might I suggest that a series of public lectures on social democracy and the history of the Rising, coupled with a celebration of Gaelic culture, would be appropriate? In other words, something of which Connolly and Pearse would have been proud. - Yours, etc.,
CIARAN EGAN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.