To actually assume power and implement policies is regarded as an inconvenience that would cost votes
Paul Murphy TD addresses water protesters. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
WAS it for this? A nation where nobody wants to govern. A century ago, seven men signed their death warrant by declaring themselves a provisional government. Today, most parties don’t even want to sign for an expense sheet in government. To actually assume power and implement policies is regarded as an inconvenience that would just cost votes.
The only party in the current Dáil that appears to want to govern is the Redmonites who lost the election. It’s as if they’re claiming that the people have no right to be wrong.
All others want nothing to do with exercising power in the democracy that rose from the ashes of the GPO. Fianna Fáil wants to keep its recovery going in opposition. Sinn Féin is intent on maintaining the slow building process that should see the party in government in time for the bicentenary.
The Social Democrats are terrified at the prospect of not being in opposition. And the Labour party, in the throes of post-traumatic stress disorder, are medically unfit to be in government.
As of now, there is still no sign of a “permanent national government, elected by all the suffrages of all her men and women” in sight. Was it for this that the children of the nation were summoned to the flag to strike a blow for freedom?
Was it for this? Vulture funds acting the maggot with the country’s housing crisis, undermining “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland”. Bad enough that one government ran the ship of state onto the rocks, but it is now becoming increasingly clear that its successor administration contracted out the salvage job to “a foreign people” and handed over the “unfettered control of Irish destinies”.
Was it for this? A two-tiered health system, a two-speed economy, unequal access to education, particularly with regard to religious persuasion, or lack thereof. Racism. Insiders and outsiders. Illegal discrimination against people on the housing supplement. Discrimination against Travellers. Was it for this that the leaders proclaimed there would be “equal rights and equal opportunities”?
Was it for this? The freedom not to take everything so darn seriously during this year when we begin to remember why for so long we forgot what it was to commemorate. Or reimagine. Or reinterpret.
Or reflect. Or put a call into some pony-tailed marketeer to find out what we’re supposed to call this year’s knees-up.
Was it for this? Cultural imperialism, as best expressed by the alarming tendency of people to begin every sentence with the word “So”. This carry-on was traced by journalist Michael Lewis to Silicon Valley at the turn of the century, when all these techie heads indulged in it to explain stuff to mere mortals less tech obsessed, as if talking to small children.
Listen out for it. You thought the rising inflection at the end of sentence was bad? You ain’t heard nothing yet. “Valour and discipline” is now required to rid the country of this scourge.
Was it for this? Public emoting. If the seven leaders were around today, they would not be subjected to a court martial following surrender.
Instead, they would be sentenced to appear on a chat show and confess everything, wringing a whole gamut of emotion from their beings for the pleasure of the masses. Pardons would be awarded to those among them who shed the most tears.
Emotive backstories, including the conquering of bereavement, ill health and/or alcoholism would be required from all if they really wished to “assert their right to national freedom and sovereignty”. At the end of it all, the leaders would be crying out to bring back General John Maxwell as an act of mercy.
Was it for this? Operation Transformation. “In the name of God and the dead generations” please spare us.
Was it for this? Torturous national introspection on the exact meaning of the Proclamation. If we have to listen to much more of that it could lead to “the destruction of the Irish people”.
Was it for this? Gross misinterpretation of the Proclamation for the sake of torturous inspection. Just last Monday, an august body of commentators on the Claire Byrne Live Show all failed to point out that mentions of the phrase “cherishing all the children of the nation equally” was being misused.
The “children” referred to therein are adults, just as the “children” summoned to the flag are. The leaders were not attempting to recruit child soldiers in that line or further down the document proclaiming the “readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves”.
For some reason, it has become fashionable to use the “cherishing” line to decry how we have not lived up to some misinterpreted ideal. Of course actual children should all be cherished equally, but there’s no need to use the Proclamation as a benchmark. Basic human decency is all that is required.
Was it for this? Irish Water. Irish Water protesters. Irish Water’s water, which is only fair to middling at the moment, but heading in the right direction. Once upon a time it was a case that only our rivers run free, but treatment plants were not high on the agenda of those plotting the Rising.
Some who object to water charges claim that the government “who serve that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine”. Others say: “Get a life”.
Was it for this? The screening of The Queen Of Ireland on Easter Sunday night 2016. What would “the Most High God Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms” have made of a programme about a transvestite entertaining on the airwaves on such a night?
The movie following Panti Bliss around during the same-sex marriage referendum is not exactly Insurrection, and it’s difficult to see that it would have found any favour with Mr Pearse “in this supreme hour” of “the Irish nation”. Still them’s the breaks when you let loose and declare a Republic. It’s open season for all kinds of everything to follow.
Enjoy the weekend, particularly if you are attending any of the events.
On the whole the commemorations have gone ok. After a shaky start last year, when the government launched the programme as if it was a Tourism Ireland advert, the tone of the celebrations and commemorations has been pretty good.
Attempts by some elements to claim ownership of the Rising do not appear to have succeeded, but there’s a road to go with that yet. Instead, there’s a little something for everybody, everywhere.
Just as the anniversaries are a moveable feast — dependant on the dates for Easter— so too are people’s perceptions, and that is the great thing about freedom. The Rising belongs to everybody and nobody.
Was it for this? Probably. Happy Easter. Roll on 2017.
Michael Clifford
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