Stephen Collins: State commemoration of 1916 has been a success
‘Things might have been far worse if the dreamers, poets and radical revolutionaries had emerged victorious from the Rising to impose their vision on an unprepared nation’
At the wreath-placing ceremony to mark the shooting dead of Constable James O’Brien, the first casualty of Rising, was his great, great grandson, Michael O’Sullivan from Listowel, Co Kerry. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
The State-organised 1916 commemorations have been widely seen as a success, encouraging pride in national independence and an open discussion about the Rising.
Fears expressed by some, including this column, that the inevitable glorification of violence 100 years ago could have damaging implications for today’s politics do not appear to have been justified, although it is probably too early to come to a definitive conclusion on that.