Oliver Callan: A century on, we still can’t rule ourselves
We can’t bury Ireland’s present mediocrity in an avalanche of guff
The centenary doesn’t matter. It’s nice and pleasant for academics in elbow patches to be relevant for a while and hear Liam Neeson reading out history and children chatting about war in their innocent way.
The most significant effect is how the events of Easter 1916 are now attracting more attention than those of 2016. It’s troubling. If you stand back and consider it, the two Irelands a century apart have worrying similarities.