To
the vast majority of Irish Protestants, especially
from the Northern Unionist community, the 1916 Easter
Rising coming in the teeth of the Great War was
truly treason of the highest order.
However,
with the hindsight of another nine decades and a
generation of republican genocide, perhaps the real
betrayal was not committed by the British Government
who executed the organisers of the rebellion.
It
is, indeed, all shades of modern republicans who
should hang their heads in shame this Easter and
ponder how they have betrayed the true meaning of
the 1916 Proclamation of the Provisional Government.
Early
20th century republicans icons like James Connolly,
Eamonn Ceannt, Thomas J Clarke, and P H Pearse must
be spinning in their graves with embarrassment at
how the various IRAs, INLA, and other assorted armed
groups have strayed from their principles.
In
fact, the best thing republicans could do this Easter
to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Rising
is to actually sit down quietly and take time to
both read and understand the wording of the Proclamation.
The
sectarian slaughter which republican terrorists
have inflicted on the Protestant community along
with the internal genocide they have unleashed on
their own Catholic community during the past Troubles
would be classified as treason by Connolly and company.
The
Proclamation's signatories wanted a Republic which
guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal
rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens,
and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness
and prosperity of the whole nation and of all of
its parts.
That
guarantee seems to have fallen on deaf ears when
the Provos butchered Orangemen at prayer in Tullyvallen
in south Armagh, or when they incinerated people
in the La Mon hotel massacre.
Where
was that republican guarantee when the INLA under
the evil disguise of the Catholic Reaction Force
went into a Pentecostal church at Darkley and sprayed
worshippers with bullets, killing three Christian
elders?
And
where was the Real IRA's resolve to pursue happiness
when it blew up innocent civilians in the Omagh
massacre?
Where
was the INLA and IPLO's resolve on prosperity when
it murdered more than a dozen of its own supporters
through internal feuding and has descended a generation
after its creation into nothing more than a front
for criminals and hoods?
The
Dublin signatories further penned: ... and
we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour
it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine.
What
about the 'cowardice' of those who became spooks
and paid informers for the British intelligence
services, yet did not emphasise to their handlers
the need to prevent further shootings and bombings?
How many lives could have been saved if they had
not just taken the money and run, but tried to do
something to stop the hits?
On
'inhumanity', what about the hundreds of people
in the Catholic community who have been left physically
and emotionally scared by republican punish squads
dishing out beatings and knee-cappings to fellow
nationalists? And what about the 'inhumanity' of
the internal torture squads of the IRA's spy catching
unit?
As
for 'rapine' the Oxford Dictionary defines
this as robbery and plundering. Modern republicans,
according to recent reports, are still up to their
eyes in criminality.
I
wonder what James Connolly would have said to the
IRA's Army Council about the £26 million Northern
Bank raid, or the racketeering involving intimidation
of Catholic businessmen or the shadowy criminal
deals with former loyalist gangsters like the late
East Belfast UDA crime boss Jim Craig?
The
real kick in the teeth for Connolly and his comrades
was the betrayal of another fundamental pledge by
today's republican movement. The Proclamation stated:
... we pledge our lives to the cause ... of
its exhaltation among the nations.
For
more than a generation, the modern IRA and its off-shoots
made the word 'exhaltation' a term for mayhem, fear,
destruction, and brutality. Connolly and his comrades
invoked the protection of the Most High God.
It
certainly was a blessing in disguise for them they
died before they witnessed the laughing stock modern
republicans have made of the Proclamation
it's time for anyone who believes in a united Ireland
to indulge in some serious late night pondering.