Irish_History

Through my studies of Kevin Myers and his opinion on the Easter Rising, I found him to be very criticing of the topic, 1916 Easter Rising so therefore viewing it as an unsuccessful story. ‘I believe the Easter Rising was an unmitigated evil for Ireland.’ (blackboard) In his article published in 2000 on the Irish times he tears the Rising, believes it was all a squander of time and the cold- blooded slaughter of innocent people was a dishonour for our country. ‘Virtually everything to do with the rising was horrible, from the homicidal manipulations of the secret society, the Irish Republican Brotherhood’. Through his writings, I found he does not have one good thing to say about the Rising. He goes on and believes it was a discredit for Ireland and that basically it should not be celebrated to this day. He believes that yes the volunteers were brave but it was because of the time warp in which they were in, it was not unusual at this time to be heroic, it was the norm and if you are anyone was stuck in this period of destruction we would do the same thing. Most of Western Europe was in the same difficulty and the majority of all these men had such levels of bravery and courage also. So fundamentally the men and women of the 1916 should not get credit for their heroism because most of the people of Europe were all under similar backgrounds. ‘The men and women of 1916 should have been capable of comparable deeds of gallantry merely makes 1916 parts of the lunacy of the period. It does not make it more laudable’. He thinks Countess Markevicz is a treasured woman but for no reason, she killed an innocent man in a park in cold blood just minutes of the Rising where now today her statue proudly stands when this guiltless man has been forgotten about and says why we should congratulate her for such a catastrophic deed. ‘Amnesia is spread like a blanket over the entire affair’. Andrew Barry was interviewed in the 1980’s; he was part of the Dublin Fusiliers of the time. Andrew went on and said in the interview that he and his fellow volunteers did not have a notion that they were part of the rising when they joined but innocently ‘thought were regular weekend exercises that Easter’. Myers noted that this aspect of the Rising is never mentioned when it should be. While all the positive material is discussed and wrote about by writers, the sad story of Andrew and his fellow volunteers’ being forced into and lied to , by the contradicting leaders is not noted or spoke about. He believes that some of the people who were to be insurgents never even knew they were and it was very unfair and manipulative of the leaders at that time. Myers believed that the Rising was a big failure, they never met their objectives and not for decades. Therefore in his eyes it was a waste of time and guiltless lives. It continued onto setting off the six devastating years of the Civil War and then the War of Independence. ‘The beginning was matched by the end’. On the other hand I studied Mary Mc Aleese’s views. At a Conference in the University College in Cork on Friday 27th January 2006, Mary speaks about the success of the Easter Rising of 1916. She stood and said that the world today might not have been what it is today only for the great people of the 1916 Rising. ‘ am grateful that I, and my children, live in the longer-run; for while we could speculate endlessly about what life might be like if the Rising had not happened, or if the Great War had not been fought, we who live in these times know and inhabit the world that revealed itself because they happened’. She goes onto discuss that we are such a strong independent and high achieving country from what had erupted nine decades ago and only for the famous words of the Proclamation read out by the president Patrick Pearse four minutes after noon on April 24th, Ireland would not be what it is today. "the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland". She believes that back then the words of the Proclamation were a tad naïve however as the years flew by these famous words became more adaptable. "cherish all the children of the nation equally – oblivious of the differences which have divided a minority from the majority in the past" , she believes that these words are very strong and they are working there way up in todays world with ‘relationships with the North, with unionists, with the newcomers to our shores, with our marginalized, and with our own increasing diversity’. She to believes that the whole world at this time was going through violent conflicts and wars so therefore at this time there was no other way to resolve conflict only to fight. ‘There were few, if any, sophisticated mechanisms for resolving territorial conflicts’. She viewed that the leaders of this time did not want to establish an ‘isolated and segregated territory’ but wanted a free country in which we could take responsibility of, stand on our own and be counted as a free nation of the world. She believes that we should celebrate this year as a great success and keep in mind all those people in which have died for this cause.’ the hearts of those who took part in the Rising, in what was then an undivided Ireland, was an unshakeable belief that whatever our personal political or religious perspectives, there was huge potential for an Ireland in which loyalist, republican, unionist, nationalist, catholic, protestant, atheist, agnostic pulled together to build a shared future, owned by one and all’. She looks on those leaders and people who fought in the Rising as Heroes.’ Yet their deaths rise far above the clamor – their voices, insistent still’. She ends in the conference with saying that it was a tough journey but through the words of the proclamation, we got there in the end.