Paddy McMenamin remembers ...

Pearse, Connolly, Tom Clarke, MacDiarmada, MacDonagh, Ceannt, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Elizabeth O’Farrell, Winifred Carney, Marie Comerford et al. Without these great men and women 110 years ago we would still be part of the Empire, Dublin would be a provincial city like Manchester or Liverpool, freedom would still be a dream? We don’t give the 1916 people enough credit, they changed everything, as Yeats said; ‘a terrible beauty was born’. Our flag proudly flying over the self same GPO; our language, culture, gaelic games, rince, ceoil, literature, our pride and determination to free the remaining British presence in the 6 counties. It all stems from Pearse reading the Proclamation on the steps outside the GPO; Connolly on a stretcher organising the defence; the women carrying dispatches to various outposts; the last gallant retreat through to Moore St; O’Farrell accompanying Pearse for the final surrender; the executions, all 16. But London didn’t realise it was only the beginning not the end. We showed the world how Empires could be brought to their knees by new guerrilla tactics followed later by Moshe Dyan, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Lelia Khalid and Yassar Arafat.