Madam, - Rather than a military parade down O'Connell Street, the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising would be better marked by the formulation of a "New Proclamation" for 21st-century Ireland.
The Government constantly reminds us of the success of the Irish economy, but seems incapable of setting out any vision of what might constitute a successful Irish society. The middle classes are preoccupied with property values, while the super-rich have declared themselves non-resident, at least for tax purposes. We are increasingly becoming an economy rather than a society.
The process of drafting a new proclamation would produce a broad discussion on the needs of modern Irish society, with the aim of reaching wide acceptance of a meaningful document that could be a moral compass to guide our elected politicians and ourselves in years to come.
Such a proclamation would include our aspirations for dealing with the "national question" in the greatly changed political and economic circumstances in which we now live - in effect "decommissioning" the more emotive language and violent solutions of the Easter 1916 original.
A new proclamation should also seek to set out a vision for the Republic in the wider world, dealing with such thorny issues as our neutrality, Third World role, immigration, etc.
It is highly likely that such an exercise would end in failure, with a consensus vision proving impossible to agree. But it would be far from a wasted effort if it opened a wide-ranging debate on where, if anywhere, we are going as a society, rather than an economy. - Yours, etc,
PETER MOLLOY, Haddington Park, Glenageary, Co Dublin.