Two unassuming little 19th and early 20th century thatched cottages, in remote and rural Galway and Clare, in pristine condition and lovingly cared for, hold within their walls Ireland’s story of its people’s long struggle against English colonisation.
Built on granite-like ground the walls of the cottages are thick and solid – a structure made to last and fortunately for those interested in overcoming the influences of English colonisation and a denial of national freedom they are a reference point and a repository of enduring and resilient ideas. Attributes which can inspire us today as we face the maelstrom of Brexit, Covid-19 and the long-term implications of both.
Beside both cottages are impressive cultural visitor centres.
This year I spent my holidays with my family in Galway city, close to the Spanish Arch, Claddagh village, the promenade stretching along the immense span of Galway Bay with its ‘Mutton Light Famine Memorial’ to the scores of ships that transported the destitute of Galway in their tens of thousands overseas in the hope of better times.
Some miles away in the popular Eyre Square stands an impressive statue to Liam Mellows a leader in the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and executed by Free State forces during the Civil War. A reminder that one hundred years later we are still dealing with the consequences of those days.
With my brother Damien we visited Padraig Pearse’s cottage in Galway’s Ros Muc and the home in Poulaphoca, (such a beautiful name), in Clare’s Burren, where Michael Cusack, the founder of the GAA was born and grew up.
In these simple yet beautiful surrounds the minds of two of Ireland’s great patriots developed ideas to reclaim the colonised mind of the Irish people for their language and sport.
Pearse’s cottage, in the heart of the Connemara Gaeltacht, sits on a promontory overlooking Lough Eiliarach.
It was here from 1909 until 1915 as a member of Conradh na Gaeilge that Pearse contributed to the nation’s cultural and literary revival through his writings in Irish, poetry and prose. He immersed himself in the customs and folklore of the local people and drew of their stories and when back in Dublin he published his Irish language paper, ‘An Claidheamh Solas’ and taught at the school he established, Scoil Eanna.
Thomas Clarke, also a leader of the 1916 Rising and executed with Pearse and the other leaders, asked Pearse to write the oration he gave at the graveside of O Donovan Rossa. He wrote the rousing oration in the tranquil surrounds in his house at Ros Muc. It was his last time in his much-loved house before his execution.
In equally tranquil surrounds Michael Cusack was born to Irish speaking parents in 1847 at the height of An Gorta Mor, the Great Famine.
Irish was his daily language and sports like hurling, football and athletics his daily past time.
Like Pearse, an Irish speaker, he was a scholar, an academic, a writer and keenly interested in sports.
While Pearse nurtured and promoted the Irish language Cusack nurtured Irish sports.
Both contributed in distinctive ways to Ireland’s cultural revival with Cusack and others establishing Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, the GAA in 1884.
Gaelic games and sports flourish today and the revival of the Irish language continues apace.
They are playing a significant part in modernising Irish society and instilling values which reflect the vision of Pearse and Cusack and which are adapting to meet the needs of all the people of today’s Ireland.
Values and vision which some people might think are outdated.
But if there was ever a time for such values it is now.
They are needed to end partition and help build a new, inclusive and pluralist Ireland which respects and reflects the cultural identity of nationalists, unionists and others.
They are needed to ensure the unseemly spectacle of privilege on display a few miles away from Pearse’s cottage in a Clifden hotel at a golf dinner are not repeated.
They are needed to ensure the inexcusable decision by An Bord Pleanala, to demolish the Dublin home of Michael Joseph ‘The’ O’Rahilly, killed in action during the 1916 Rising, is reversed and not repeated.
Padraig Pearse and Michael Cusack lived in simpler times but nonetheless the issues facing them were complex and daunting.
It was their vision which guided them through.
