TO MARK the centenary of the start of the 1916 Easter Rising, an Irish social campaigner has released a video paying tribute to Ireland’s journey over the past 100 years.
Cavan native Ruairí McKiernan’s six-minute film – entitled A New Ireland Rising – aims to “pay tribute to the injustices and suffering this country has been through, and celebrate our resilience and many achievements".
Sunday, April 24 is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Easter Rising, also the day on which the Proclamation was first read out.
“It started out mainly as a personal reflection, a way of trying to capture how I feel about the state of the nation and our role as citizens” said Mr McKiernan, who was appointed to the Ireland's Council of State by President Higgins back in 2012.
“Looking at our political system it is clear that there is a lack of visionary leadership at the moment. However there is so much we can do at an individual and a community level to create change. As the saying goes, ‘when the people lead, the leaders follow’."
Mr McKiernan produced the video with filmmaker Myles O’Reilly, known for making music videos for Oscar-winner Glen Hansard.
In one of the scenes of the video, he speaks of the need for Irish people to "make [their] own proclamation":
Battered and bruised as we may be, a new Ireland is rising. This is a time of unravelling the political and the personal, helping reveal to us who we are and the wounds that we carry, offering an opportunity to re-imagine who we want to be.
Make your own proclamation. Launch your own rising. Create your own emancipation manifesto, live your own revolution that is based on following your dreams, not someone else’s.
Watch the video below:
See More: 1916 Rising, 1916Rising, Featured, Ireland
