Remembering 1916 – the Contents challenges for today¬ Preface by Deirdre Mac Bride In the current decade of centenary anniversaries of events of the period 1912-23 one year that rests firmly in the folk memory of communities across Ireland, north and south, is 1916. For republicans this is the year of the Easter Rising which led ultimately to the establishment of an independent THE LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT: THE CHALLENGES republic. For unionists 1916 is remembered as the year of the Battle of the Somme in the First World AND COMPLEXITIES OF COMMEMORATION War when many Ulstermen and Irishmen died in the trenches in France in one of the bloodiest periods of the war. Ronan Fanning,”Cutting Off One's Head to Get Rid of a Headache”: the Impact of the Great War on the Irish Policy of the British Government How we commemorate these events in a contested and post conflict society will have an important How World War I Changed Everything in Ireland bearing on how we go forward into the future. In order to assist in this process a conference was organised by the Community Relations Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Entitled Éamon Phoenix, Challenging nationalist stereotypes of 1916 ‘Remembering 1916: Challenges for Today’ the conference included among its guest speakers eminent academics, historians and commentators on the period who examined the challenges, risks Northern Nationalism, the Great War and the 1916 Rising, 1912-1921 and complexities of commemoration. Philip Orr, The Battle of the Somme and the Unionist Journey The conference was held on Monday 25 November 2013 at the MAC in Belfast and was chaired by Remembering the Somme BBC journalist and presenter William Crawley. COMMEMORATING THE EASTER RISING, THE SOMME AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR: THE LANGUAGE OF THE ARTS, NATIONAL Marking Anniversaries IDENTITIES AND THE FACTOR OF TIME Principles for Remembering in Public Space Fran Brearton, ‘In balance with this life, this death’: Poetic Responses to 1914-1918 Mary E. Daly, Remembering 1916 – Myths and Risks of Commemoration 1 Start from the historical facts; 2 Recognise the implications and consequences of what happened; Marie Coleman, (Not) Commemorating the First World War and the Somme 3 Understand that different perceptions and interpretations exist; and 4 Show how events and activities can deepen understanding of the period. REMEMBERING THE FUTURE All to be seen in the context of an ‘inclusive and accepting society’ Maurice Hayes, The Challenge of Contemporary Commemoration Remembering the Future www.community-relations.org.uk/programmes/marking-anniversaries 3 MAC Belfast. It focused on how we remember the he argues, where the conflict is protracted or organising events and programmes in relation to Preface critical events of the Easter Rising, the Battle of sectarian and historical narratives are the main the decade of anniversaries; academic life and Deirdre Mac Bride, the Somme and the First World War and how this vehicle for expressing the conflict. It is possible to scholarship; culture, heritage and community Cultural Diversity Director CRC has changed over time. Critically we wanted to identify in emerging practice in Northern Ireland organisations; media and representatives from explore and reflect on the challenges facing some of the features of historical dialogue that the political spheres; those interested in identity society as we begin to contemplate how the Barkan puts forward. These include the and in how events are remembered in contested 100th anniversary will be publicly acknowledged importance of - good empirical research; or post conflict societies. in 2016. contributions from people with long held nationalistic and opposing views which find CRC and HLF were ably supported by a steering This publication is the latest in a series of resonance in their own communities; and offering group in designing the “Remembering resources produced by the Community Relations with openness and empathy wider perspectives 1916”Conference. We acknowledge the Council and Heritage Lottery Fund. The basis of than long held partisan and national views. significant contributions of Marie Coleman, the joint work of the Community Relations Council Queens University Belfast, Damian Smyth, Arts and Heritage Lottery Fund is focused on how the Participants from a broad range of fields from Council Northern Ireland, Robert Heslip, Belfast anniversaries are marked in the context of the Northern Ireland and Ireland came to the City Council and Éamon Phoenix, Stranmillis principles for remembering in public space. conference. They included those involved in University College, in planning and organising the In the current decade of centenary anniversaries Activities marking the anniversaries have taken policy development; influencing, planning and/ or conference. (2012-23) one year that rests firmly in the folk many forms and include talks, plays and projects, memory of communities across Ireland, north and the organisation of commemorations and south, is 1916. For republicans this is the year of dialogues exploring the past and understanding the Easter Rising which led ultimately to the our future. Such activities need not be mutually establishment of an independent republic. For exclusive; indeed, if the commemorations are unionists 1916 is remembered as the year of the handled sensitively, if we share together in Battle of the Somme when many Ulstermen and exploring the history and its relevance, they will Irishmen died in the main Allied attack on the provide an opportunity to underline how much of Western Front during 1916 with the loss of our history is shared. We hope there are 58,000 British troops, one third of them killed on increasing opportunities for communities and the first day of the battle, 1 July 1916. groups to reflect on and address issues of identity within a safe space, to promote contributions to How we commemorate these events in a the public realm, and to explore local heritage contested and post conflict society will have an together. important bearing on how we go forward into the future. With this in mind Tony McCusker and Indeed Elazar Barkan1, argued the case for the Ronnie Spence respectively the Chairpersons of employment of historical dialogue in contributing the Community Relations Council and Heritage to conflict prevention. By explicitly opening up Lottery Fund identified the importance of partisan historical narratives of identity to wider promoting a timely public discussion about the perspectives, scholars and civil society can implications of the 100th anniversary of 1916. contribute to a process of on-going historical The ensuing conference and this publication dialogue and conflict transformation that may “Remembering 1916 Challenges for Today” is the lead to the end of the conflict. Such shared result. The conference of the same name took narratives are themselves subject to further place on Monday 25th November 2013 in the research and debate. This is particularly relevant, 1“The memory of the past in post-conflict societies conference” April 2014 Conference organised by Dr Marie Coleman, Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice. QUB Podcasts Elazar Barkan, Professor of International and Public Affairs at New York’s Columbia University and Tom Dunne, Emeritus Professor of History at University College Cork, are available on the ISCTSJ website: http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/isctsj/Events/SeminarPodcasts/ 4 5 ‘I feel as if a great weight were off my chest’, grasped, there was a powerful incentive towards into the wings, if not out of the theatre. How World wrote Asquith, on 18 September 1914 as the compromise, an incentive of a kind lacking in the Home Rule, first postponed at the outbreak of third Home Rule Bill, accompanied by the normal workings of the British party system as it war, was postponed again after the collapse of Suspensory Bill, went through all stages in the had developed around the turn of the century. The Lloyd George's 1916 negotiations with John War 1 Changed Commons ‘on oiled castors in about 7 minutes.’ impetus, in short, was towards agreement on Redmond and Edward Carson about the The Suspensory Act provided that the Home Rule Ireland where previously it had been towards immediate implementation of Home Rule: the Everything in Act would not come into effect until an indefinite disagreement; and agreement, in the context of crux, as always, was Ulster. Would its exclusion be date ‘not being later than the end of the present coalition, meant partition. temporary or permanent? The outcome, which Ireland war.’ It was also accompanied by an explicit made public Redmond's readiness to accept Ronan Fanning assurance from Asquith to the Unionists that ‘the It was precisely because of that understandably partition if only on a temporary basis, had a employment of force, any kind of force, for ... the obsessive concern with the war effort that the predictably disastrous impact on the popularity of coercion of Ulster, is an absolutely unthinkable Great War conferred as many advantages upon Ireland's beleaguered constitutional nationalists. thing ... a thing which we would never the forces of Irish revolutionary nationalism as it countenance or consent to.’ Asquith’s did disadvantages upon the Irish Parliamentary The crisis in the spring of 1918 precipitated by declaration, in Nicholas Mansergh's words, Party. ‘England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity’ the proposal, albeit aborted, to apply compulsory ‘carried, despite the wartime qualification, an is so well-worn a slogan of Irish separatists that it military service to Ireland set the seal on this unmistakable ring of finality. There would be no is too easily forgotten how long it had been since process. The conscription crisis of 1918 coercion of Ulster, with the Ulster Unionists left in international difficulty had created such epitomises the impact of the Great War on effect to decide what was coercion. To that the opportunity. Not since the battle of Waterloo had Britain's Irish policy.