Decade of remembrance, reconciliation or renewal?

Here’s something we’ve been poor at talking about so far. Last year was the first of a decade of significant centenaries in Irish history.

The first of them, the signing of the Convenant actually passed without a great deal of comment, or any serious revisiting of its meaning in contemporary society.

On on level the dearth of public comment and/or debate might be seen as a good thing. But in fact treating these momentous events as so many notches on the bedpost are we missing an opportunity?

As Ian Parsley notes:

…neither jurisdiction in Ireland is recognisable from those established on the back of events we are commemorating during the “Decade of Centenaries”. Suggesting they are – by treating the events of 1912 and 1916 without reference to the misjudgements made at the time and the hurt caused since – is dangerous.

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