The Meaning of 1916 for ALL citizens of the REPUBLIC of Ireland

I am Irish.  I am proud to be Irish. I came of parents who were of protestant (father) and Catholic (mother) tradition, Both proud to be Irish. Dad my protestant father never failed to share his Irishness. All through the Northern Irish 'troubles' my father did not argue, engage or otherwise voice an opinion. Neither did my mother. neither did the children. We were not political. We just got on with living. We declared ourselves Irish.

I lived in Ireland until 18 years old. I left in 1971, those years pre EU where Ireland had nothing to offer girls except nursing and secretarial work and 'the bank'. Yes, Dad wanted me to go into the bank. It was the ideal girls job. I wanted to go to nurse at Great Ormond street children's hospital. That's where I went at 18. I returned to Ireland age 57. I came 'home'. Its where my heart always was. I WANTED to 'come home'.

I wanted to die in Ireland. To see if I could in my last days offer anything to MY country.

Being sick and disabled I soon realised my country is not a country for sick and disabled people. Or poor people, or old people, or homeless people, or travellers, or refugees. The people of Ireland do care about others but within certain parameters only. Protesting loudly only for free water but not health care. trying to get any protest about what is happening disabled people is virtually impossible and the media just don't want to publish anything at all. It simply doesn't 'interest' people. Well, it seems that way. Being sick and disabled in Ireland is a nightmare. you cannot feel 'free'.

50 years ago I was 13.  It was the 50th anniversary of 1916. We celebrated. My school, the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus in Killiney, Co Dublin, was run by an English order of nuns. A 'posh' school then and now, but I was a 'charity case', my parents could afford little. middle class in status but not in income! we were 'posh poor'. Many don't even know we exist. An uncomfortable and unhappy place to be. Accepted by neither the 'posh' nor 'the poor'.

The Nuns were quite close to 'feminist' that you could get in those times, educated, open, and wide in the breath of teaching. Mum chose to send us there because she told us; "they wouldn't try to convert your father". they didn't, nor did they try.  These English nuns took us to Dublin Castle to see the exhibition of 1916. we did 'projects'. Here is mine and twins 'project'.  Our 1916 scrap book.

I am forced now to consider the 'proclamation' of 1916. Those words of our first leaders. They wanted ...and they PROCLAIMED for all Irish people...declared 'equality', 'rights', 'opportunities', 'happiness' and 'prosperity' in an ethos of 'cherishing' all citizens of this new Republic of Ireland.



" The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens' and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally. "

But now 100 years later, our leaders have betrayed us. and we are still celebrating. Such a 'celebration' feels dishonest to me. None of our leaders have lived by this Proclamation. Over the years we were divided not protestant against catholic , that largely did NOT happen in the Republic but rather 'rich against poor'.

Health was divided between the haves who could afford insurance and a better health service and the poor who could not so had to, still have to,  rely on a substandard, increasingly so, public health system. Yes, in this 'equal' republic you can buy your hip replacement, your physiotherapy, your quick appointment, x-ray, MRI , but on a public list wait a year or more for 'equal' to happen!

The division between rich and poor goes right through Irish alleged 'REPUBLICAN' society. the wealthy have housing, the poor do not. Indeed public housing has decreased and whilst bankers beggared this country they got off scot free, with huge stashed away lolly to retire for the rest of their lives, whilst the poor are thrown out by bailiffs of the Banks wanting more money back!

Our young are emigrating in droves as I did age 18 in 1971, when there was nothing to offer...there is STILL nothing to offer. Hail the REPUBLIC, that proclaimed 'opportunities, happiness, prosperity'.

Suicide has risen exponentially to the politics of 'austerity' which is NOT an Irish Republican ideology but a German devised EU economic takeover of a sovereign nation, yet our leaders don't see this. Where is the 'independence' of 1916 now? Where sovereignty? Where is the freedom from a nations control? First it was the English, now it is Europe, but really Germany and France. We are not free, nor sovereign , nor a RUPUBLIC.

The Irish heart has changed over the 100 years. still generous but growing weary, the poor, the less well off, the old, the disabled peoples are now seen as burdens, a drain on the economy. We apparently get too much 'free' care (benefits) , too much help, too much...that the nation cannot afford. We should therefore die. 'happiness and prosperity' is only for the productive , the ones who can contribute to the economy'. Those of us who apparently don't contribute (but you see, we do, because ALL our doctors, nurses, carers, etc... all have a job and income off our backs- but they forget that) should die.

Soft euthanasia I call it. They think with us ignored, shoved in the background, starved of services...will die and save the glorious REPUBLIC's money. This is not, despite the proclamation, a nation for ALL.

I may sound bitter, or angry or ungrateful but I prefer to call myself honest.

This is the only honest analysis of an Irish Republic that had the principles of equality, opportunity, happiness, prosperity, for the whole nation, not just a section of it, that simply was a one day wonder, on that day it was read a 100 years ago.

I feel absolutely sure this is NOT the Irish Republic that was envisioned by

Thomas Clarke, Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Patrick Pearce, Eamonn Ceannt,  James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett. Signatories of the Irish Proclamation 1916, on behalf of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic to the People of Ireland.

 Ann and Margaret Kennedy Fight for the 'proclamation rights of 1916

That's me on the right holding  the Irish flag...yes, back to front, upside down... perhaps symbolic of the failed 'Republic'.