A chara, – Alf MacLochlainn (May 10th) is incorrect about the absence of commemorations of the 1916 revolution on the anniversary of that momentous event and the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.
On Republic Day, April 24th, the Citizens’ Campaign for Republic Day organised dignified and proper commemorations at both Arbour Hill Cemetery and later, at noon, at the GPO. There were commemorations held too in Cork, Tyrone and Edinburgh.
The campaign was initiated by me in 2010, motivated by a sense of shame and disgust at the neglect of that most significant date in our national calendar, and we have marked Republic Day each year since. It is quite deliberately a citizens’ campaign, and is outside of any political party or organisation. Our intent, apart from honouring both the leaders and the rank-and-file revolutionaries – women and men, girls and boys – is to create Republic Day on April 24th as our national day by popular acclaim.
Our national day is not just about how we present ourselves to the world, but also about how we present ourselves to ourselves. We are better than the universal image of drunken revellers. It should be a day for relaxation and enjoyment, but also for celebrating our freedom and reflecting on how it was won and what we do with it, what the nature of the republic we want should be, and about the privilege, power and responsibility of citizenship.
The campaign organisers intend that in 2014 Republic Day will be celebrated in every one of the 32 counties and abroad and that it will build towards a very significant and unique commemoration by citizens on Republic Day 2016, which will involve family members or other representatives of all of the revolutionary participants in Easter Week 1916.
As a proud citizen, a grandson of Volunteer John Stokes of Boland’s Mills Garrison, I would invite Alf MacLochlainn, a grand-nephew of Volunteer Patrick Pearse, to consider playing a role in establishing a citizens’ commemoration on Republic Day 2014, in Galway. – Is mise,
TOM STOKES,
Co-ordinator, Citizens’
Campaign for Republic Day,
Season Park,
Newtownmountkennedy,
Co Wicklow.