W.B.Yeats - his 'Easter 1916' is still contentious
This time of year my family are in Irish mode.
Or, more specifically, a northern Irish republican one.
Hallowe'en has always been the main celebration and Guy Fawkes shunned.
Apart from the fact he was a Catholic, there's the history of the 'wee six' itself, where the Loyalists have traditionally built huge bonfires on which they've burnt effigies of prominent republicans and numerous Irish flags.
It's not just the Battle of the Boyne which is a cause for triumphalism.
My response to Remembrance Day as a committed Welsh socialist republican is akin to that of my wife and her Belfast background.
How can you possibly glorify a military who have oppressed and murdered your own people?
On the streets of Merthyr, Llanelli and Newport just as on Bloody Sunday in Derry, the British armed forces have been used as an instrument of colonial brutality against working-class struggles.
Like Irish republicans I can never wear a red poppy, which only mourns the military dead , not the civilians or freedom-fighters.
At this contentious time, I've been involved in workshops and a reading culminating in an event at Redhouse, Merthyr , where the Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall spoke about W.B.Yeats on the commemoration of 150 years since his birth.
My workshops with a creative writing group in Treharris focused on Yeats' famous poem 'Easter 1916' and I'm carried by its power and emotion even though I don't agree with its sentiments.
The group went on to write individual poems about personal 'risings' and several group poems. They voted on the best one, which one of them read out on the night and which was also exhibited at Redhouse -
HOPE RISING
We rise up, rare fountain of hope
from the depths of our inner misery
reaching to the stars and beyond
the eternal barrier of fate.
But there is always a fall
after a rising call,
the people want to be heard
above the shouts and battle cries.
The Ambassador spoke in some detail about 'Easter 1916' and its affect on Irish consciousness.
Yeats' disgust at the revolutionary violence is evident and he obviously believed that Home Rule could've been achieved without resorting to rebellion.
What Yeats didn't fully address were the wider implications of the Rising : the first real challenge by any of its colonies to the British Empire.
Daniel Mulhall didn't deal with that either.
Yeats barely implied the callous , totalitarian measures taken by the British Gov. , namely the execution of 15 of the leaders, among whom were his friends.
His horror was aimed at revolution and not state terror, and this tells you a lot about his politics.
Ambassador Mulhall raised the question of how Ireland should celebrate the centenary of the Rising next year. His conclusion was, as an act of remembrance.
Yet, looking at contemporary Ireland there are three crucial areas which remain unresolved and which the Rising can throw light upon.
Firstly, there's the Gaelic language, whose main champion Padraig Pearse was one of those executed.
Ironically, the main impetus towards it has come in recent history from Provisional IRA prisoners in the Maze and Sinn Fein remains the only party really committed to a bi-lingual Ireland.
Secondly, serious inequalities exist within Irish society in terms of wealth and expectation.
Partition and the victory of the Free Staters in the ensuing Civil War brought two parties, both capitalist, emerging out of that conflict. The Irish working-class has been oppressed by its own countrymen in businesses and companies.
Like Britain, it has been vulnerable to the changes of boom and bust, but the latter never saw a redistribution of wealth.
James Connolly was the principal voice of socialist republicanism in the Rising and his execution in 1916 meant that Ireland lost its most significant figure.
Connolly was also an avowed internationalist and member of the IWW, and realised that worker control should not be confined to his country
alone.
The third unresolved matter is the fact that Ireland is not independent, simply because Britain still controls n. Ireland.
Connolly and others like him would surely never have given in to Lloyd George's threats of war in the way Michael Collins did.
I'm pretty sure he would not have accepted the partition of Ireland against the democratic wishes of the majority : in 1918 Sinn Fein won an outright majority.
Yeats mourned his friends 'As a mother names her child', but not the ideals they cherished.
He was a staunch Anglophone, who didn't sympathize with Pearse's vision of a Gaelic-speaking nation and he definitely had little time for Connolly's revolutionary socialism.
What Ireland should be confronting next year are these fundamental issues, all connected to the Rising.
It's fitting that Ireland embraces its citizens from all traditions : poets Longley, Yeats and Mahon and great singer-songwriters like Van Morrison.
The narrow Catholic state has gradually changed and is still changing.
Loyalists in the north should also look to their own culture and see how it has engaged with where it lives and not just the battles it has won.
The Easter Rising began something which has still not ended, despite the relative peace and calm.
Connolly's socialism and Pearse's beloved Gaelic should belong to everyone, no matter their beliefs.
( I wrote this poem about a recent visit to Galway City) :-
RAINBOW FLAG SAILING
Sailing above the Spanish Arch
is the rainbow flag,
so soon after the loud,proud
'Yes!' of more than enough.
He strides towards Quay Street,
lipstick shining , face-studs
and multi-coloured clothing
as if fashioned from that banner.
His ship's just landed
and hardly a head turns
as he joins the babble of tongues
lapping at stalls and shops.
He's not come from another country,
but one long hidden :
to his tales of rocks and wrecks
the landlocked finally listen.
Or, more specifically, a northern Irish republican one.
Hallowe'en has always been the main celebration and Guy Fawkes shunned.
Apart from the fact he was a Catholic, there's the history of the 'wee six' itself, where the Loyalists have traditionally built huge bonfires on which they've burnt effigies of prominent republicans and numerous Irish flags.
It's not just the Battle of the Boyne which is a cause for triumphalism.
My response to Remembrance Day as a committed Welsh socialist republican is akin to that of my wife and her Belfast background.
How can you possibly glorify a military who have oppressed and murdered your own people?
On the streets of Merthyr, Llanelli and Newport just as on Bloody Sunday in Derry, the British armed forces have been used as an instrument of colonial brutality against working-class struggles.
Like Irish republicans I can never wear a red poppy, which only mourns the military dead , not the civilians or freedom-fighters.
At this contentious time, I've been involved in workshops and a reading culminating in an event at Redhouse, Merthyr , where the Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall spoke about W.B.Yeats on the commemoration of 150 years since his birth.
My workshops with a creative writing group in Treharris focused on Yeats' famous poem 'Easter 1916' and I'm carried by its power and emotion even though I don't agree with its sentiments.
The group went on to write individual poems about personal 'risings' and several group poems. They voted on the best one, which one of them read out on the night and which was also exhibited at Redhouse -
HOPE RISING
We rise up, rare fountain of hope
from the depths of our inner misery
reaching to the stars and beyond
the eternal barrier of fate.
But there is always a fall
after a rising call,
the people want to be heard
above the shouts and battle cries.
The Ambassador spoke in some detail about 'Easter 1916' and its affect on Irish consciousness.
Yeats' disgust at the revolutionary violence is evident and he obviously believed that Home Rule could've been achieved without resorting to rebellion.
What Yeats didn't fully address were the wider implications of the Rising : the first real challenge by any of its colonies to the British Empire.
Daniel Mulhall didn't deal with that either.
Yeats barely implied the callous , totalitarian measures taken by the British Gov. , namely the execution of 15 of the leaders, among whom were his friends.
His horror was aimed at revolution and not state terror, and this tells you a lot about his politics.
Ambassador Mulhall raised the question of how Ireland should celebrate the centenary of the Rising next year. His conclusion was, as an act of remembrance.
Yet, looking at contemporary Ireland there are three crucial areas which remain unresolved and which the Rising can throw light upon.
Firstly, there's the Gaelic language, whose main champion Padraig Pearse was one of those executed.
Ironically, the main impetus towards it has come in recent history from Provisional IRA prisoners in the Maze and Sinn Fein remains the only party really committed to a bi-lingual Ireland.
Secondly, serious inequalities exist within Irish society in terms of wealth and expectation.
Partition and the victory of the Free Staters in the ensuing Civil War brought two parties, both capitalist, emerging out of that conflict. The Irish working-class has been oppressed by its own countrymen in businesses and companies.
Like Britain, it has been vulnerable to the changes of boom and bust, but the latter never saw a redistribution of wealth.
James Connolly was the principal voice of socialist republicanism in the Rising and his execution in 1916 meant that Ireland lost its most significant figure.
Connolly was also an avowed internationalist and member of the IWW, and realised that worker control should not be confined to his country
alone.
The third unresolved matter is the fact that Ireland is not independent, simply because Britain still controls n. Ireland.
Connolly and others like him would surely never have given in to Lloyd George's threats of war in the way Michael Collins did.
I'm pretty sure he would not have accepted the partition of Ireland against the democratic wishes of the majority : in 1918 Sinn Fein won an outright majority.
Yeats mourned his friends 'As a mother names her child', but not the ideals they cherished.
He was a staunch Anglophone, who didn't sympathize with Pearse's vision of a Gaelic-speaking nation and he definitely had little time for Connolly's revolutionary socialism.
What Ireland should be confronting next year are these fundamental issues, all connected to the Rising.
It's fitting that Ireland embraces its citizens from all traditions : poets Longley, Yeats and Mahon and great singer-songwriters like Van Morrison.
The narrow Catholic state has gradually changed and is still changing.
Loyalists in the north should also look to their own culture and see how it has engaged with where it lives and not just the battles it has won.
The Easter Rising began something which has still not ended, despite the relative peace and calm.
Connolly's socialism and Pearse's beloved Gaelic should belong to everyone, no matter their beliefs.
( I wrote this poem about a recent visit to Galway City) :-
RAINBOW FLAG SAILING
Sailing above the Spanish Arch
is the rainbow flag,
so soon after the loud,proud
'Yes!' of more than enough.
He strides towards Quay Street,
lipstick shining , face-studs
and multi-coloured clothing
as if fashioned from that banner.
His ship's just landed
and hardly a head turns
as he joins the babble of tongues
lapping at stalls and shops.
He's not come from another country,
but one long hidden :
to his tales of rocks and wrecks
the landlocked finally listen.
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