According to Facebook, five years ago today, I was in my father’s town in County Mayo.
Moreover, they have photographic evidence to prove it.
A Fenian caught in the act!
The nudge from Facebook caused me to think about the subject I dealt with yesterday when I looked, admittedly gleefully, at the downfall of Eoghan Harris.
For decades he was a hugely influential person within the media of the 26 counties.
Yesterday on RTE, Harris claimed that he was some kind of non-person and had been de-platformed over a long period of time.
Given that, up until a few days ago, he had a column in the biggest selling Sunday paper in the state seems a bit bonkers.
In his heyday, Harris also proffered his advice to any politician on this island who would listen to him, and there were a few.
The success of the revisionist narrative within the 26 county elite over the last 40 years was down to the fact that it offered amnesia rather than analysis.
It augmented the Partitionist mindset, which allowed Northern Nationalists to be othered and ignored by those in Leinster House and, indeed, by wider civic society in the South.
As well as dismissing and detesting those pesky Nordies, the Revisionists also had little grá for the diaspora.
That is because we had been reared on the folk memory of those dark days when the Tans terrorised every town and townland that they passed through.
Consequently, when the North erupted in 69, we KNEW what the craic was.
The Partionist mindest held to the view that the “Good Old IRA” were lovely genteel, ethically constrained fellas and gentlemanly to a fault.
In contrast to those ghastly Provos who indulged in all manner of wicked skulduggery.
So, what was the real difference between the IRA who fought the Northern War and the…ahem “Good Old IRA”?
Truly little, save for the available weaponry and the technical sophistication of the enemy.
I seriously doubt if the West Mayo Flying Column could have manoeuvred over the Partry mountains in the age of the helicopter and the satellite.
Similarly, if we had a couple of M60s available at Carrowkennedy, then the Tans would have been wiped out in short order.
That’s a nice thought…
So, dear reader, let me re-iterate my essential position.
If ordinary people anywhere are organising armed actions against the state that rules over them, then it is the state itself that has committed some great wrong, usually over a long period of time.
I’m sure that this fella, who I was honouring that day, did not have it in his life plan to take on the British Empire.
However, circumstances gave him little choice.
That is exactly why there were queues of young people in Derry on the night of January 30th 1972, patiently waiting to swear the oath and join the IRA.
Essentially the British state had left them with few other options after the slaughter that day.
In that sense, they were no different from my grandparents’ generation and many other generations before them.
Dear reader, if you think you can make a historical case for British rule in Ireland, then I can’t help you.
I really can’t…
Of course, that was the starting point of the Revisionists.
They knew they couldn’t make a case on behalf of Britain in Ireland historically, so they wanted it all to be forgotten as if it had never happened.
Five years ago today, I sat in the family enclosure on the Mall in Westport with my son.
We listened as our elected head of state, Uachtarán na hÉireann Mícheál Dónal Ó hUigínn, laid out rather beautifully the sociological origins of the revolutionary generation.
After the commemoration, my Big Fella told me that he reckoned that this centenary year of the Rising would be a difficult period for the Revisionists.
As usual, my big Gaeilgeoir was on the airgead.
In fact, I don’t think that Harris and his kind have ever recovered from it.
The bottom line is that the 26 country state, for all of its undeniable limitations and problems, was able to stop the Westminster tribe in its tracks during the Phase One Brexit negotiations.
Our gallant allies in Europe let the UK delegation know very clearly that until Dublin signed off on the talks, then there would be no Phase Two.
Probably for the first time in the history of this archipelago, a polity on this island held sway over a state on the neighbouring island.
That state of affairs could not have happened without the Rising.
John Redmond wanted a form of devolution, not statehood.
It is undeniable that what emerged from the Treaty talks was a settlement that was largely on Britain’s terms.
Back then the Brits were still Numero Uno on the global stage, although their time there was coming to an end.
Today?
The British state itself is looking rather shaky.
History takes a long time, and it is a crass error to believe that it will somehow neatly conclude in your lifetime.
Precisely because of that, it is essential to pass on the lessons and memories of the past to those who will survive you.
Job done.
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It’s a continual process. We all have to keep telling and interpreting history. British history in particular has an emphasis that even shapes elections today. Brexit, Empire, self interest and generally interpreting history to dismiss the place of the Labour movement drives results like Hartlepool. What do people in Hartlepool have in common with Boris? Ask yourself that question.
With all the ‘intellect’ that Boris and his shower displays, it’s not beyond reason to suggest that he may well, if he found a monkey in the English channel, put it on trial for being a ‘French spy’, find it guilty as it refused to answer questions and then have it hanged, just as the ‘good people’ of Hartlepool once did! Little Englanders, that’s what they have in common.
My job done, my kids have the history to pass on