What exactly are we commemorating?

Confusion surrounds plans for the Rising’s centenary. Perhaps that is strangely appropriate

An Easter 1916 commemoration in Dublin Picture: Getty
An Easter 1916 commemoration in Dublin Picture: Getty

I don’t know what we are commemorating. Is it the execution of 16 men? Or the

Easter Rising itself? The moment when the collective Irish mindset transferred

expectations from Home Rule to independence? Or is it the Proclamation of Ireland as a

Republic? “We have chosen to commemorate this time as marking the birth of our

sovereign nation.” So said the Taoiseach at the launch of the ...