"COMMEMORATION," says Louis Cullen, Professor of Modern Irish History at TCD, "is a strange communal, tribal activity, rather like an all Ireland or a rugby international." We are in the centre of a long period of commemoration, which began with the Famine two years ago and looks forward to next year's bicentenary of the 1798 rebellion.
Although the valour and idealism of the rebels - such as Wolfe Tone, Edward Fitzgerald and Father John Murphy - have entered the realm of popular folklore, the rebellion involved a great deal of bloodshed in which an estimated 30,000 were killed.
Fighting did not divide along stereotypically sectarian lines. Many of the leaders were liberal Protestants influenced by the democratic ideals of the French Revolution of 1789, and the majority of the rebels in Ulster were Presbyterians dissatisfied by their exclusion from political life. Although Catholics, from gentry to peasant, did join the United Irishmen, seeking Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary reform, there were many Catholics in the militia and yeomanry forces which suppressed the rebellion and, most Catholic priests opposed it. Families - including this reporter's own - were frequently divided, with members on both sides of the conflict.
As with the Famine, commemoration of such a dramatic, tragic and complex time poses a challenge. With less than a year to go before 1998, how should we approach the task?
Marianne Elliott, biographer of Wolfe Tone and Professor of Modern History at Liverpool University, sees it as an opportunity for inclusiveness and reconciliation: "The 1798 rebellion was an event in our history in which all the religions were involved. All can celebrate and all can mourn at its commemoration." She is aware of the danger that "sectarian aspects could be allowed to prevail".
"The rebellion went disastrously wrong and everyone was blaming everyone else. Personal vendettas accounted for a lot of the deaths. Propaganda was circulated, by government agents and by the United Irishmen, which played on underlying sectarian fears."
She remembers during her childhood hearing Ulster Presbyterians speak proudly of their rebel ancestors in 1798: "I'd love to see this pride tapped. It is one of the few periods of history that Presbyterians share with Catholics." She mentions Betsy Gray, a Presbyterian United Irish volunteer who fought at the battle of Ballynahinch in Co Down: "Both sides want to own her as a hero.'"
And how should we remember Wolfe Tone? "His democratic ideas permeated through all the religious groupings, influencing them to rise above their fears of each other. He was a bridge." Born a Protestant Tone was, says Elliott "disapproving of any institutionalist religion. He would be appalled to think that he has been rejected by one group and taken on by another. His Republicanism was very different from modern day nationalism in the North."
Meanwhile Thomas Bartlett, Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, believes that commemoration of 1798 should show that the period between 1791 and 1803 was "a crucial decade in the making of modern Ireland", containing - "the origins of Republicanism, Loyalism, Separatism, Unionism the foundation of the Orange Order; and of Maynooth. The consequences of all this remain with us today, and the 1798 rebellion is the centrepiece."
It was, he stresses, "a serious attempt at insurrection. Army officers did not see this as a peasant rising against the Protestant ascendancy. They saw the rebels as unskilled but infinitely brave and enthusiastic, with dangerous connections to France." Atrocities were committed on both sides. One hundred, mostly Protestant, government supporters were shot and burned by rebel forces at Scullabogue, Co Wexford in retaliation for the slaughter of wounded rebels after the battle of New Ross.
"It was not rebel policy to commit atrocities," Prof Bartlett observes. "Those that did occur were denounced by the leaders. On the government side, however, the army generals encouraged their militia to commit atrocities. General Lake gave the order to take no prisoners, which really meant a licence to kill."
After 1798, "amnesia descended on the Presbyterians who had fought against the established order of Church of Ireland landlords". Tales of sectarian atrocities in Wexford were "played up" by establishment commentators to detach Presbyterians from their United Irish alliance with Catholics. "Nonsense passwords used by the United Irishmen were interpreted by loyalists as having sinister meanings. It was claimed that the letters `MWS' on a rebel flag meant `Murder Without Sin': if Catholic rebels murdered Protestants, it would not be considered a sin. There is no historical evidence to support such an interpretation. `Murder Without Sin' is a highly improbable rallying cry."
Nevertheless, he suspects that "there will be a chorus of loyalist voices in the North who will claim that any commemorations of 1798 will be commemorating "the extirpation of Protestants by, Catholics". Wearily he predicts what will be said: "They'll say it is endangering the peace process; that by looking at the insurrection in 1798 we are encouraging another today.
Prof Louis Cullen believes that such arguments don't stand up. "The idea that commemorating violent events supports violence or its legitimacy today ignores the ambiguity of history." Public commemorations "tend to simplify things", and of(en end up using historical events to support some current point of view rather than being looked at in their own light. "1798 is like a chameleon. Its colour has changed to support the particular rhetoric of the time. In 1898 it was seen as a peasant Catholic rising. In the 20th century it has been seen as a nationalist political rising."
Commemorations of 1798 should, says Prof Cullen, try to uncover some of the complex realities of the rebellion, including the sharp divisions in both the Protestant and Catholic communities between those "who were influenced by the modern ideas of the Enlightenment and those who were living in the past". Most of the discontent in Ireland was with the "fatally flawed" Irish government, not with, England, he stresses - so much so that Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian alike ended up looking forward to the Act of Union as a welcome alternative.
The scale of commemorative activities will be, understandably, most intense in Wexford. "This is inevitable. Wexford stands apart. There the rebellion was a major event in which the region was fundamentally involved. The recollection of 1798 in Wexford and its reinterpretation there is ongoing."
Wexford's central role in 1798 has been attributed to different factors: the strong presence off committed, French influenced Protestant and Catholic liberals at all social levels who were disaffected from government the determined radicalism of Catholic leaders; the highly politicised population, where each townland had its own youthful and committed unit of United Irishmen; the swift early military victories in Wexford and the competence of its rebel captains in battle. Wexford even established its own pluralist Republic, complete with a 500 member Senate (see panel).
Kevin Whelan, visiting Professor at the Department of History at Notre Dame University in the US, warns against making commemorations too localised. "We must see the rebellion as a whole event. We are too keen on emphasising local battles like Vinegar Hill or the Castlebar Races. We need to look at what was happening in the US, Britain and France and the international political dimension to remember that emigre United Irishmen, themselves inspired by the American Revolution, were active in founding the Republican party in the US."
AS for the Orange Order's reissuing of Murder Without Sin (see panel), he fears that it will continue the same separatist agenda which resulted in convincing the Northern Presbyterian United Irishmen that they were wrong to have had anything to do with Catholic "barbarians". By contrast he is pleased about the erection of the memorial plaque at Scullabogue in Wexford: "It shows a maturing of the popular consciousness in Wexford, acknowledging the Protestant population who were largely the victims at Scullabogue. You can't sweep these things under the carpet.
He warns against a repetition of the "faith and fatherland" version of 1798 celebrated in 1898. "The rebellion was claimed for Catholic nationalism, for Father John Murphy and Boolavogue. The United Irishmen went out the window. The song which people associate with the 1798, rebellion, Boolavogue, was in fact written in the 1890s."
Tommy Graham, co editor of History Ireland, is completing a PhD thesis on Dublin in the 1790s, which will be published next year. He feels that our 1798 commemorations should give due recognition to the ability of the United Irishmen to mobilise the masses with the modernity of their principles.
"The idea of the inherent democratic rights of man was a very novel idea at the time. It really shook establishment. The fears that it generated explains some of the nastiness that was unleashed" (including flogging, hanging and pitchcapping by government forces of suspected United Irish supporters, particularly in Kildare and Ulster). He stresses that Presbyterians should be reminded of the Presbyterian synod's stand for Catholic Emancipation in 1792; and adds that, as with the French Revolution, the Catholic church remained on the conservative side during the rebellion: "Only rogue priests got involved."
Meanwhile, Roy Foster, Carroll's Professor of History at Oxford, concludes: "Future historians will be very interested in our interest in commemoration. Commemoration runs the risk of ironing out complexity in a surge of emotional identification and holier than thou attitudinising. In 1898, factions were competing over who `owned' 1798. Instead of all the speeches, marches and unveilings of statues - the overpoliticisation of the whole thing - Lady Gregory suggested that people should plant trees. It was a very sensible idea."
