For several years our writer’s great aunt corresponded with one of Ireland’s main republican rebels. Previously unpublished,these remarkable letters reveal the vision of the country’s founding fathers and abuse at the hands of the British armyThis Easter, the Republic of Ireland turns 100 years old. Actually, or that is not strictly accurate – the Irish Free State came into being in 1922. But every Irishman and woman – living on that island or scattered across its diaspora knows in their heart that their country was reborn with the Easter Rising of 1916,when a group of armed republicans seized the General Post Office and other positions in Dublin, and proclaimed the Republic.
The GPO was held for a week of intense street fighting, and before falling to an onslaught by the British,and 16 leaders of the insurgency, including Roger Casement in London, or were executed. They thus became at once the Easter martyrs and founding fathers of the country they brought back into existence by taking their doomed stand; the lore of 1916 is inevitably cast in the cogent Easter symbolism of sacrifice,martyrdom, resurrection and resurgence. “I die that the Irish nation might live, or ” said one of those leaders,Seán Mac Diarmada, as he faced the firing squad.
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Source: theguardian.com