My Saturday Essay in the Irish Daily Mail (1800 words guys!) Who Fears 1916? On Monday morning, I tuned in to the Webcast of a Dublin City Council meeting. Questions were to be asked about the capital’s preparations for the 2016 Centenary of the Easter Rising. I was chilled to hear the Assistant Chief Executive tell Councillors that no special financial provision was being made by the Council to generate commemorative events, and that they hoped to get some money next year from a “National Commemorations Committee” -- which doesn’t actually exist as a funding body. Hoped! From a non-existent agency! Next year! Five years after the setting up of an Oireachtas committee to prepare for this momentous national occasion, key partners are still hoping in vain, and at the final hour! How Irish is that! I reached for a strong cup of tea and shuddered with despair. My mind flashed back to the last minute cobbling together of the 1991 Dublin European Capital of Culture programme, and to the hastily assembled commemorations in 1995 of The Great Famine. These turned out to be “alright on the night”, barely, but could have been so special. Then I recalled musicians Donal Lunny and Liam O Maonlai, forlorn ‘on the back of a truck’ in Merrion Square at midnight on 31st December 1999, when Paris, Sydney and London were lit up in splendour for the new Millennium. No excuse there; since 1996 Government had been sitting on a blueprint for a world-beating celebration. But we never learn, and can’t plan beyond the end of our noses, or the next Dail. Thus it is that Limerick National City of Culture 2014 kicked off disastrously due to insufficient advance planning and preparation. So it seems we can look forward to an embarrassing damp squib for what is the most important commemorative event in the history of the State, our Centenary. The Easter Rising 1916 was our Storming of the Bastille, our Boston Tea Party, our Mau Mau Uprising. I’m old enough to remember the splendid Bicentenaries in America in 1976 and France in 1989, and even Kenyan Independence Day in 1964. All were consequences of unmandated violent events, with bloody aftermaths, and all unquestionably worth celebrating in spite of that. Ireland’s fight for freedom is no less worthy of honour. Our Defence Forces, the true Oglaigh na hEireann, regard Easter Monday 1916 as their foundation day; they still wear the insignia of the Irish Volunteers who fought that week. The Proclamation has pride of place on our Oireachtas walls. Our current Government parties were founded by people like Collins, Cosgrave, FitzGerald and Connolly, who took arms against British rule and ultimately founded our State. No amount of argument about the demerits or futility of that rebellion can alter the fact that it is the single most important event in our modern history, and that it led directly to Irish independence. Nor can the naysayers question the high-minded aspirations, valour and sacrifice of those who fought, and died. Last Sunday, I sat amongst hundreds of decent, ordinary Irish people of every age, political hue and social background who had gathered with great stories to tell. They stood up with pride and emotion to speak of their grandfathers and grandmothers, fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts, sharing memories of the part these people played in Easter Week 1916, some of whom had sacrificed their lives. I met for the first time the granddaughter of the man who fought shoulder to shoulder with my own grandfather. It was a thrilling moment. These people are all members of the 1916 Relatives Association, formed last year, and since then ignored or stalled by the Government officials responsible for “developing the framework for commemorations” and making recommendations to Government. Is it remarkable that the responsible civil servants have not proactively engaged the Relatives Association in their deliberations, in spite of Ministerial press releases stating that “the most important part of commemorating 1916 will be the family members of those who fought and those who were victims of the Rising”? No, it’s par for the course. Instead of reaching out to the 1916 Relatives Association, officialdom adopts the view that this is a self-appointed and troublesome body to be kept at arm’s length. It’s like the way the old Dept. of Industry and Commerce used to view brash entrepreneurs seeking licences to do business: as somewhat unsavoury tradesmen seeking to line their own pockets, to be stonewalled and discouraged as ‘suspect’. That much has changed. But in more immaterial matters it is still officialdom’s mindset, especially when it comes to 1916, where only the mandarins can be trusted to know what’s best for us. I mean, when they started work on this five years ago, imagine if the ORDFC (“officials responsible for developing the framework for commemorations”), had put announcements in the newspapers inviting members of the public to propose ideas, or express interest in being involved, or offer artefacts of interest! Well, it could have been unmanageable chaos, so best not to do that. Better to wait until it can be carefully managed, with no danger of slip-ups. In fact, the less done - the safer and less troublesome it will eventually be for all concerned. Fortunately for the ORDFC, this appears to be the view of their political masters also. The Fine Gael-Labour Coalition give every impression of being reluctant to do anything beyond the minimum possible to mark the centenary of the Rising: something low key and quietly dignified before they fly out to the big Somme Eurospectacle. The Government seem to be mortified at the prospect of the Rising’s centenary, as if fearful that any high profile commemorative programme, or anything smacking of celebration, would drive our youth into the arms of Sinn Fein, and Unionists from the North/South Council, and Her Majesty to strike Michael D. off her guest list. Michael Collins and James Connolly would rise from their graves at such craven miscalculation. Meanwhile, a Sinn Fein founded in 1970 will spare no effort or expense to lay claim to a heritage they view as theirs alone, unchallenged in scale and investment by the Government of the Republic of Ireland. As for Unionists, Whitehall or the British monarchy, they’ll get over it somehow if we do as they do by honouring our own past with appropriate pomp, colour and panache. They’d despise us if we didn’t. So let a Windsor stand alongside the world’s Heads of State in Dublin, and pay due respect. Unfortunately, the VIPs won’t have much else to do in Dublin that week if “preparations” continue at their current pace, nor will the people of Ireland. After five years of committee work by a Joint Oireachtas Committee and an eminent Advisory Group, supported by a team of ORDFCs, what do they have to show for it? A building improvements programme, consisting mainly of long overdue refurbishments to existing National institutions, and including a permanent 1916-1921 exhibition in the GPO. No draft programme of Easter Rising events has been offered for public consultation, no key partners embedded, no tenders offered, no open invitations issued for cultural or artistic projects, no monuments or artworks commissioned, no fund put in place for communities to access for local commemorations, no schools projects, no event management professionals contracted. With eighteen months to go, all this should now be in place. As ever when politicians and civil servants pretend to be event organisers, it’s a case of too little too late. Then, at the eleventh hour, E4 million was announced in this week’s budget to be given to the Department of Arts, Heritage & Gaeltacht for the year 2016 within the Decade of Centenaries programme. This has focused to date on Ireland’s participation in World War 1. How much of this E4m will be allocated to the centenary of the Rising is not known. All we know is that this fund will be spent in 2015 seed funding, and managed by the same civil servants who have made such little impact to date. Behind closed doors, the ORDFC will decide what happens, who gets what, and may even try to manage events themselves. Where is the transparency and accountability in this, let alone the proficiency? One beacon of light in all this has been our Defence Forces, whose officers take this anniversary very seriously. In 1991, it was they who put it up to the President and Government that the long-suspended military March Past at the GPO be restored for the 75th anniversary. In 2010, they were the first in to Government with a centenary project: the magnificent Military Service Pensions Archive Project, whereby the records of all those who served in the Rising and War of Independence are being restored, preserved and made public. This work has been proceeding apace for the last few years and will be completed before the anniversary date. But where’s the joined up thinking of the ORDFC on this invaluable resource? No attempt has been made by officials to create a database of the worldwide network of many thousands of combatants’ relatives. The Gathering would pale in comparison to what might have been achieved if they had initiated such a database five years ago. Why didn’t they offer support to the Relatives Association to undertake this work when the Association first approached them, instead of fobbing them off with unfulfilled promises of inclusion. It’s the same old, same old. What is wrong with us? Is our sense of self-worth and identity so low? What’s with all this political temerity, bureaucratic foot-dragging and lack of any creative courage and imagination? The powers that be are so caught in the past that they can’t envisage our Centenary being about our future. Dull old heads are so worried about not being “divisive” that they can’t make the leap into being positively unifying. To hell with all this negativity and stasis! Let’s get our fingers out and make some magic for our 100th Anniversary. The time is overdue for Heather Humphries or some cabinet minister to get a grip on all this, and act decisively and boldly. There are many out there offering programme initiatives, like Senator Mark Daly of the Joint Oireachtas Committee, who is proposing a Boston style Freedom Trail in Dublin and a schools Tricolour project. But, like Aongus O Snodaigh’s call for a new national holiday, Republic Day on April 24th, these and many other ground-up ideas and proposals are hanging in the wind waiting for effective action by Government. It is not beyond us, even at this late stage, to do our own take on the London Olympics opening ceremony. We have a great story as a people, we have a great place to be proud of, and we have all the talent and organisational skills needed to produce a world-class celebration of Ireland that will be remembered for generations, for all the right reasons. Let’s revel in our culture and identity, blending past and present in an inclusive and inspirational way, lifting our spirit into the future. Let’s fill O’Connell Street. Let’s fill Croke Park. Let’s invite the world and broadcast to those who can’t make it. Let’s have a very happy birthday!
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:47:55 +0000
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