Maeve Binchy (30 page)

T
he issuing of the ‘Proclamation of the Republic’ by Patrick Pearse in 1916 marked the beginning of modern Irish history.

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old
tradition
of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.

Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to
be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty: six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and its exaltation among the nations.

The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic 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 its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and
oblivious
of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.

Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National Government,
representative
of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.

We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the
protection
of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will
dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

B
rehon law arose through the roots of society as it were by osmosis, quite unlike the rule of the Jesuit Society of Jesus, which was imposed – top down – from Rome. It differs in significant ways to canon law, the law of the Catholic Church. For example, Brehon law allows polygyny (more than one lover) and divorce. It is also more enlightened in its treatment of women. By the eighth century, although Irish society was male dominated, it allowed women greater freedom, independence and rights to property than any other European society. Divorce was provided for on a number of grounds and property was divided fairly according to the contribution each spouse made. A husband was legally permitted to hit his wife to ‘correct’ her, but if the blow left a mark she was entitled to compensation and could, if she wished, divorce him.

There are also many differences between Brehon law and British law, which the British government had for centuries been imposing upon the Irish people. Capital punishment, for example, was not permitted.