Celebrating the 1916 Rising in 1966

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Early in 1966 Seán Lemass signed “a message from the government” to the school managers and teachers of Ireland and to the children under their care.

He wrote that it was fitting that the Irish people celebrate the Jubillee, and the government take pride and pleasure in calling on all citizens to do honour to the men of 1916.

“Our youth have a special part to play, for they were born into freedom under an Irish government and no other…the Government’s message to our citizens whose freedom is the fruit of the Rising, and especially to those to whom falls the forming of the younger generation, is a request for them to instil into our youth an appreciation of the values of their heritage and the scarifies made for it.

“Among matters which might be specially stressed to our young people is that they too as citizens will be called upon to use our native institutions in the interests of the community and the country. The present is a very suitable time to prepare them for the responsible exercise of their rights and duties in that regard.”

Pamphlet

To forward these aims the government issued free to all schools a pamphlet, Oidhreact, on the events and men of 1916 free to all school children from fifth class, primary schools, upwards.

The achievement of these ambitious aims were, as files now reveal, dogged by ill luck and mismanagement. This government pamphlet for instance had production difficulties, and when arrangements were made for its distribution through An Post, many teachers said they never received it, or got too few.

But the authorities faced difficulties; one national school in Dublin which was on the official list could not be traced because there was confusion about its address. One doubts if this booklet became a treasured item, as copies of it are so rare this writer has never seen one.

Naturally most of the arrangements were for a single event and ephemeral exhibitions but there was also to be a more formal book. This was The Making of 1916, edited by Kevin B. Nowlan of UCD. The essays in this were first broadcast in the early months of 1966 as the Thomas Davis Lectures on Radio Éireann – under a motto derived from that patriot, “educate that you may be free”. This was a large book of 338 pages covering the period from 1910 to 1912; the civil war and the aftermath of the revolution was studiously avoided. 1916 was history; and the Civil War was still politics.

But instead of being published at once, later in 1966, when the essays would have had maximum impact and probably been read with enthusiasm, they only appeared a full three years later due to delays in both the final editing and production from The Stationary Office. (A similar strange delay beset the state sponsored volume on the Famine, which was intended to mark the centenary of the Great Hunger in 1946 – but only appear later, an American edition in 1957, and Irish edition in 1962.)

This is in stark contrast to 2016 when innumerable books from publishers in several countries appeared, and Irish readers were perhaps overwhelmed now by an oversupply of information, often of a starting and revisionary nature. But this freedom of expression perhaps was an essential part of the country’s achieved freedoms.

But back in 1966 scholarship was of less importance to the government, intent on the creation of a grand patriotic event. There were free copies of the Proclamation (but none of the Constitution), which was to be displayed prominently .

There was to be a formal unveiling of this document. And “possibly a local IRA veteran” or other local dignitary would give an address.

The proclamation would then be read and the national anthem played (or sung). It was hoped parents would attend, and that the National Flag be flown at the school “for the occasion” – implying it need not be flown at other times.

[File 2017/12/2]

Celebrating 1916 in Chicago

Chicago has long been a city dominated by Irish and Irish-American politics. It was inevitable that that the commemoration of Easter Week in 1966 would give rise to concern for the government in Dublin.

Certainly they called the Consul General Brian Ó Ceallaigh and the Department back in Dublin some anxious moments.

Plans were announced locally that representatives of some 15 Chicago Irish-American Clubs attended a meeting convened by Mr Eoin MacNamee to discuss arrangements. Seán Ronan in Dublin wrote to the Consul General about the matter the following months.

“If anything like 15 local organisations are going to participate in a programme of this magnitude under McNammee’s auspices, it would not only be an unwelcome departure but could be a serious one which would diminish the prestige of this country in Chicago and perhaps give an impetus to fund raising activities for illegal organisations in Ireland,” Ronan said.

Ronan was referring to the revived IRA (whose activities was covered in April by the foreign press, notably a long article with photographs of hooded armed men in the London Telegaph Colour Magazine, omninous of the years to come).

Eoin McNamee was “a local IRA veteran” an IRA man of the old school and (in Chicago) local dignitary as long-time member and former head of its Northern Command. He died in August 1986.

During World War II, he was in contact with a German secret agent in Ireland. Later in his life, he lived in the Chicago area where he supposedly acted as the go-between for the IRA leadership and its weapons suppliers in the US.

Seán Ronan in Dublin said it would be “undesirable” that the Irish Consulate would be involved. “No doubt you will advise City Hall that the Mayor or other prominent Irish personalities should not be involved in functions under the auspices mentioned.”

[File 2017/17/15]