Press Releases25 Apr 16

‘Generous Remembering, Generous Envisioning’ – Centenary of 1916 Rising Marked at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin

A special service commemorating all who lost their lives in the 1916 Rising took place in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on the 100th anniversary of the Rising. The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Richard Clarke, preached at yesterday’s service (Sunday April 24) on the theme of ‘Generous remembering, generous envisioning’.

The service of Choral Evensong, which took place on the exact anniversary of the start of the 1916 Rising, was also attended by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Eamon Martin and the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson. The Revd Dr Donald Watts represented the Irish Council of Churches and Fr Kieran McDermott represented the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. President Michael D Higgins was represented by his Aide de Camp, Lieutenant David Lyons and the Australian government was also represented.

In his sermon, Archbishop Clarke said that in the wider context of Easter we “seek to commemorate the totality of 1916 in a generous remembering … one that can encapsulate idealism as well as destruction and death, division and mistrust as well as hope”.

The Archbishop added: “There is more than one narrative in 1916 and its Rising; we must live with a plurality of narratives, or our commemoration is a self–serving and disingenuous pretence. This single narrative pretence is a place we all have known so well in the history of this country. It is a place where, as Eavan Boland expresses it,
…every inch of ground
Was a new fever or a field soaked
To its grassy roots with remembered hatreds.
Coupled with our generous remembering should surely be a generous envisioning, an envisioning of the future that is generous and is for all”.

The Archbishop recalled the fiftieth anniversary commemorations and examined how things had changed in the intervening years. ‘What we are called to undertake – fifty years on from 1966 – is to reach out for a wider view, to discern a narrative that is both more nuanced and less politicised. I would want to call this generous remembering. We must therefore recognise that the Rising was indeed one of the accelerators that accentuated the many fissures within Ireland, not simply those of national identity and adherence but also of mutually exclusive cultures, of diverging contexts and differing religious traditions. We should also seek to place the context of 1916 into the larger background of the First World War, where many convinced Irish nationalists felt impelled by conscience to fight in British uniform on the slaughter fields of Europe.” He added that the victims were not just Irish patriots or British soldiers, there were many deaths among the general population, particularly of Dublin city.

The Proclamation contained rhetoric but also aspiration, Archbishop Clarke said pointing out its vision of a State which provides equal rights and opportunities to all its citizens, cherishing all its children equally.

He suggested that the commemorations must recognise the abject failure to follow through on these goals, pointing to the increasing problem of homelessness and the widening gap between those who have and those who do not have.

Photos:

Above: Archbishop Eamon Martin and Archbishop Richard Clarke give the blessing together at the end of the special service in St Patrick’s Cathedral. (Photo: Patrick Hugh Lynch)

Top: The clergy who took part in the St Patrick’s Cathedral service to commemorate those who lost their lives in the 1916 Rising, with the President’s Aide de Camp. (Photo: Lynn Glanville)