At the launch of ‘Ireland 2016’ at Collin’s Barracks

Ladies and gentlemen, friends.

Firstly, let me join with others in welcoming you here this evening. Tonight we are announcing our plans to mark the centenary of one of the most important single events in Irish history – the Easter Rising of 1916. The plans are ambitious and comprehensive. They include significant State occasions – of course. But the plan also gives citizens – all our citizens – the opportunity to participate in what will be a great national event. Is cuis áthais e domsa go mbeidh, agus go bhfuil, an méid sin daoine a ghabhann le saol ealaíona agus saol spóirt na tíre, gníomhach agus lanpáirteach i gceiliúradh na bliana seo chugainn.

It will be a time to reflect and debate. It will be a time to reach out. Above all, it will be a time to celebrate.

The Labour movement

Mar ceanaire Páirtí an Lucht Oibre, táim thar a bheith bródúil bheith anseo anocht chun na heachtraí a bhaineann le Éiri Amach na Cásca a cheiliúradh. Go háirithe, táim bródúil as an bpáirt a ghlac gluaiseacht an lucht oibre i rith tréimhse mórchúiseach i stair ar dtíre.

The foundation of the ITGWU in 1909 by Jim Larkin and James Connolly, and the foundation of the Labour Party in 1912, marked a huge step forward in the organisation of working class people in Ireland.

The movement faced its critical moment in the Dublin Lockout of 1913. In the event, the business classes in the city conspired with government and the Church to defeat the workers. But despite the defeat, a generation of workers was radicalised, and lessons were learnt by the leadership of the union – lessons which ultimately contributed to the Rising a few years later.

During the course of the Lockout, James Connolly set up the Irish Citizen Army and based it in Liberty Hall. The Citizen Army threw in its lot with the Irish Volunteers in 1916 and several hundred of its members fought under Connolly’s command in the GPO. Others fought in St Stephen’s Green, City Hall and Harcourt Street.

The execution of Connolly sitting in a chair – more than any one other event – helped to bring about the change in public mood which led to the establishment of the Free State in 1922. Prior to the Rising, Connolly had come to see the cause of socialism and the aim of national self-determination as two sides of the same coin.

The Proclamation itself reflects both trains of thought. The Proclamation is both an eloquent assertion of national sovereignty and a succinct statement of fundamental rights.

The role of women

But if the role of Labour in the national revolution is often understated, so too is the role of women. We remember the fearless leadership of Constance Markiewicz, who was an active member of the Citizen Army at the time of the Rising. She was one of a few dozen women who took up arms and actively engaged in combat. Many others gave support to those who fought. They ran messages, cared for the injured, organised supplies, helped in communicating between points of resistance. We remember Nurse Josephine O’Farrell who tendered the surrender on behalf of Pearse when the Rising had run its course. We remember too strong women such as Kathleen Clarke, who made an important contribution to the new State after the Treaty.

Celebrating the Rising

We celebrate too the ideals of those who signed the Proclamation – the ideals of national self-determination, of free speech, of common ownership of property, of equal treatment before the law. These ideals speak to us with a clarity and simplicity that is simply timeless. Our values are universal values – values that belong to everyone who believes in the basic concept that all men and women are born equal.

The Republic – Republicanism – does not belong to any one group, to any one set of people, or to any one political party. It would be much diminished if it did. We are all of us equally entitled to call ourselves republican. We are all equally entitled to be inspired by the values espoused in the Proclamation of the Republic. We are all of us equally charged to make good in our time on the challenge posed to us by the men who penned that document a century ago.

There is a copy of the 1916 Proclamation in the reception hall in Leinster House. I see this not just as an historical item. I see it as a challenge to all who work there. A challenge to make good the Republic; a challenge in our time to treat all the children of the nation equally; a challenge to broaden and deepen the ties of fraternity which unite – and sometimes divide – the people who live on our island.

1966

The last time we celebrated 1916 on such a scale was in 1966. A lot has changed in Ireland in the intervening 50 years. In 1966, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Now we are – despite our recent problems – one of the richest. We have gone from being an inward-looking, conservative, Catholic and homogeneous State to being a confident and comfortable member of the European Union. Our attitudes to social morality, to religion, to our neighbours – all of this has changed beyond recognition.

So, just as our country has changed in the last half-century, so too will the nature of the way in which we look to the past. We no longer expect children to accept and regurgitate a single version of history. We expect difference; we encourage debate. We appreciate our past; we celebrate our history. We are informed, as we should be, by the major events that led to the establishment of the State. We are influenced by those events, but we are not defined by them. We are inspired by the sacrifice of the men and women of 1916, but we are not defined or restricted by that sacrifice.

I hope that we, as a people, will enjoy this next year. I hope that we will emerge from our year of commemoration enriched by the experience, comfortable with our history and confident in our future.