Over recent weeks and months, the forthcoming centenary of the 1916 Rising has given rise to a wide-ranging public debate (and no doubt many a private argument) across the island of Ireland.
The debate has centred on the most appropriate manner in which that seminal event should be commemorated.
Given that an integral part of the Irish Government’s much-anticipated commemorative programme is engagement with the Irish Diaspora, it would now seem to be an appropriate time to have a similar discussion within Irish circles in Britain – and, indeed, to commence the planning process for such events intended to be staged next year.
It may legitimately be asked whether such commemoration should take place at all. And to what extent the Irish community in Britain should play a role in same and what the principles upon which such commemorative activities should be based.
The first question is easily answered.
The Easter Rising is the foundation event of the Irish state, and in the words of the Initial Statement issued by the Irish Government’s advisory group of historians (of which I am a member), that state ‘should not be expected to be neutral about its own existence.’
Some may, quite reasonably, point out that the Republic declared in 1916, and ratified by Dáil Éireann in January 1919, was an all-island entity.
But in the eyes of most citizens of the modern Republic that state originates in the actions of those who fought in the Easter Rising.
The principal reason why those of Irish stock who are living in Britain should engage with the centenary commemoration of the Easter Rising is that it set in train a series of events that has, over time and not without many setbacks, produced a situation where relationships between the two islands are more harmonious than they have been in a very long time indeed – arguably since the Reformation.
Further, it is the Irish community in Britain (and the British community in Ireland) who are the biggest beneficiaries of this improved relationship.
One need only think back to the dark days of the ‘70s to see the truth of that statement.
The establishment of an independent Irish state, with a republican form of government, has ultimately benefited the people of both jurisdictions.
This is notwithstanding the protracted and painful process by which this Irish state came into being, and even taking into account the far-from-resolved issue of Northern Ireland’s position within the matrix of Anglo-Irish relations.
Queen Elizabeth II’s state visit to Ireland in 2011 - and more particularly her action, while standing alongside President McAleese in Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, in bowing her head as a mark of respect to those who died fighting for Irish freedom - set the capstone on this transformed relationship.
It is probably the single most compelling argument against those who caution against a forthright commemoration of the Rising.
Consider the potency of that single gesture, of the two women, side-by-side, heads lowered, before the statue of the Children of Lir.
Monarchy counter-pointed by republicanism; inherited privilege contrasted to populist egalitarianism; the British unionist tradition, historically anchored in Anglicanism, alongside the Irish nationalist one, predominantly (but never exclusively) identified with Catholicism.
The Queen’s dignified, silent, gesture – which must rank as one of the most potent images of modern European history - spoke volumes.
It proclaimed to the world that the British monarchy, against which Irish republicanism has historically defined itself, sees that Irish republican separatist tradition - of which the 1916 Rising is the quintessence - as an honourable one, as a noble one, as one that commands respect and deserves attention.
And if the Queen can thus express her respect for the Irish republican tradition as embodied in the Easter Rising, and do so in the very locale where that Rising took place, surely the Irish community in Britain need have no qualms when it comes to the commemoration of its centenary?
Finally, to answer the question, what form should that commemoration take?
As an academic I think the best answer comes from one of Ireland’s earlier generation of republican thinkers, Thomas Davis, in the form of his immortal dictum: educate that you may be free.
Yes, there should be a ceremonial element; yes, there should be a social aspect; yes, and an amount of dignified pride.
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