Memory Studies

On the ninetieth anniversary of the Easter Rising in Ireland this year, a large and well-attended parade worked its way through the streets of Dublin. Commencing at the city castle, the procession ended at the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, where rebel leaders first declared Ireland a republic in 1916. Flags flew half-mast, soldiers stood at attention, officials laid wreaths, and historic proclamations were read. This was no ordinary partnership’. Yet claims to national belonging are always fragile, contested by those who seek to promote their own narratives of the past in the public realm. Ian Paisley Junior, of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, derided President McAleese for stating that the rebels ‘gave their lives for those who now enjoy the benefits of the Celtic Tiger economy’. For him, such a statement was ‘utter folly and would not stand up to ‘historical scrutiny’. Not only are claims to the past contested, citizens enact a range of relationships to the nation. At the day’s events, young men shouted obscenities at government ministers, some families enjoyed the pageantry, locals attended political rallies, old-timers debated the future of Sinn Fe´in in pubs, and visiting British students were confused about the lack of media coverage of the day’s events in the UK