Maybe the title is ambiguous. What I mean is, what would someone think of me if they just took a quick gawk at this page? They'd probably think I'm a big 'RA head or something! I do like the tri-colour at the side (apparently it's the one on the Customs House) but is it a bit suggestive? I don't really care, I'm not taking it down, coz it's pretty!
The last post, Pearse's poem, might have people wondering what I'm about too. "Hmmm...I wonder does this guy think blood sacrifice is good too?" I dunno. The principes of the Rising were commendable. Even against rediculous odds, the Volunteers and Connolly's Citizen Army fought against the army of the mightiest empire of the time for the right of freedom. Right, I'm not doing myself any favours here if I go off on tangents like that. Even so, that last statement doesn't make me a Provo does it? Yeah, I think I'm safe. It's perfectly ok for us to embrace our history and not be sympathizers of modern hard liners. Even if you don't embrace, it aint going anywhere folks. It happened and so, up the Wolfies for singing about it, I say!
Graham seems to think that I'm a republican. I was gonna give that a capital letter first, then I thought, no, no, then that would be the Yankee Republican Party. So wee little letters will do. But of course, he's being a little silly there. Even more amusing was that he thought Mr. David O'Shea was also a staunch republican. But anyway, folks, I hope yez don't think that I've a stash of weaponry out my back garden or anything. I like Irish history, (correction, love) and of course, I'm of the thinking that the Irish are bleedin' deadly. So, I can do no harm, but again, of course I'm going to be a tad biased in favour of the Volunteers, IRA under Brugha, etc. etc. But, I'm no criminal, I'll buu-rst yeh, righ'?
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3 comments:
I do often think about these things and I've resigned myself to the fact that the ideals of the past, no matter how admirable they might have been in contemporary times, are irrelevant in the modern world. A modern-day Pearse would likely be seen as a bit of a nutter, but he got away with it in his day because those were times of ideals. We don't live in an ideal world—romanticism is dead in this world of postmodernism. Therefore ideals are irrelevant to us. Labour and Socialism and Nationalism and Republicanism and everything else don't really matter in today's world as they did a hundred years ago. We must be happy with our lot.
We may respect the rebels of 1916, but we must not venerate them. The Irish are great at making martyrs. Do you think had Pearse lived he would be as mysterious and enigmatic as he is to us as a dead hero? Is de Valera the romantic hero that Pearse or any of the other executed commandants is? Of course not. That is because he was not a martyr for the cause. The generally accepted cult of Irish republicanism must be taken with a grain of salt, because those who have created it for posterity have distorted reality. I don't doubt that the men of 1916 fought for admirable reasons. But it's almost sacrilegious to venerate them as quasi-sainted martyrs. Think of it objectively, unemotionally. Just because they were martyred for the cause doesn't make them any greater than they were in life. Think of my comparison with de Valera. To allow the memories of these men to feed the cult of 1916 and militant republicanism is what is truly questionable here. I think this is what your post is getting at, is it not?
No...not really! Surely, the ideals of '16 wouldn't work now, that accepted. But of course, in the age, their aims, ideals were meritorious. And long live their memory. But, no, not as "quasi-saints," as you say. Yes, I just quoted you.
But all I meant was I'm not a big 'RA head!! But thanks for the dev on that one. I mean development and deV being included...Oh oh, see what I did there? Oh!
"To allow the memories of these men to feed the cult of 1916 and militant republicanism is what is truly questionable here. I think this is what your post is getting at, is it not?"
That's the bit I meant I read your post as implying, that you're an admirer of the rebels of 1916 but don't carry on that admiration into 'RA-head hero-worship. Have yeh got that, yeh? yeh? (John.)
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