Speaking at last year’s Daniel O’Connell summer school in Co Kerry, Professor Mary Daly, a member of the Irish Government-appointed Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemorations said: “ the appropriateness of inviting members of the British royal family to Dublin in 2016 depends on context. You can’t have a line-up where you have the Irish Government, relatives of participants in the Easter Rising and members of the royal family in a prominent position. I think that would be inappropriate. But if the German president can go to Belgium and make a very moving speech at the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War, if Angela Merkel can go to the site of the D-Day landings, surely we can work out some arrangement to accommodate a member of the royal family”?
It now seems that it has not been possible to work out some arrangement and that there won’t be members of the royal family in Dublin next year. That doesn’t really surprise me and nor does it worry me. I don’t regard it as a major setback for British-Irish relations, nor a lost opportunity to strengthen an ongoing process of understanding and reconciliation. That process will continue, because it is in the joint interests of both countries for it to continue.
Anyway, I’m not convinced that Angela Merkel on the site of the D-Day landings is the same thing as Queen Elizabeth in Dublin in 2016. The Easter Rising remains unfinished business for many people and parties on both sides of the border. The post-1994 process to bring us from a long period of conflict up here is still a shaky, un-cemented one, with the institutions under greater threat than ever before. Sinn Fein and the SDLP still want Irish unity rather than a Northern Ireland locked into the United Kingdom. Increasing numbers of people believe that another manifestation of the “armed struggle” is lurking and growing in the political undergrowth.
The Easter Rising was an attempt to remove the British footprint and presence from all of Ireland. It failed. But the dreams and the ambitions didn’t die with that failure. They live within the hearts of tens of thousands of Irish people. And there are still people—maybe a significant number, too—who believe that the “war against British occupation” should continue in whatever form seems most appropriate at a particular moment. 2016 won’t represent a closed door and finished business. Instead, it will serve as a reminder of failure in 1916 and the continuing failure to unite Ireland.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that there remains anger within unionism that the Easter Rising took place at a time when the British were engaged in the conflict now known as the Great War. James Connolly supported the dictum that “England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity” and that a rebellion at that point would “reawaken the soul of the nation.” And a century later many unionists believe that what happened in Dublin during Easter 1916 is not a cause for joint celebration: not least because they view what happened during 1970-1994 as a continuation of that rebellion.
The Easter Rising matters to many, many people. I can understand that. And I also acknowledge the fact that the British handled the aftermath of the Rising with spectacular stupidity—a stupidity that did more to “reawaken the soul” than anything that happened during the Rising itself. Old wounds tend to be opened unintentionally and unexpectedly and that’s why I think the time isn’t yet right for Ireland’s political establishment and the royal family to stand shoulder to shoulder at an event to commemorate the 1916 Rising. As I say, the commemoration is about unfinished business; business that many Irish people wish to see finished.
There are three very significant relationships in play across Ireland at the moment: the relationship between London and Dublin, the relationship between Sinn Fein and the DUP, and the relationship between Sinn Fein and the southern electorate. The London and Dublin one has come on in leaps and bounds since 1972 and they are closer now than ever before. And that’s why nothing should be done which could, possibly, undermine it. The peace/political process needs that relationship to remain strong.
We have all come a long way in the last century. But we’re not yet at the point at which there is a meeting of British/Irish minds on the significance and legacy of Easter 1916. Ireland remains partitioned. The British footprint and presence remains. The campaign for unity continues. So what, exactly, would be commemorated if the Irish government and royal family were together in Dublin in Easter 2016?
