The legacy of 1916 belongs to all – A response to Fianna Fáil Cllr Jim O'Callaghan's 'hijack' claim

LAST WEEK, a majority of the councillors elected to Dublin City Council agreed on a set of priorities for the city in the next five years – the first being the need to urgently address the housing crisis and to try to remove some of the burden of austerity from our citizens.

We also agreed on a fair allocation of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and committee chair positions on the City Council. Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael chose to pull out of the talks. As a result, neither party had an input to the agreed mission statement and neither of them will have a Mayor or Deputy Mayor position in the next five years.

Neither of these conservative parties could overcome their antipathy to Sinn Féin, as displayed by Fianna Fáil Councillor Jim O’Callaghan in his Evening Herald column. So they cut off their noses to spite their faces.

I laughed out loud when I read Councillor O’Callaghan’s spurious claim that the agreement is “devoid of policy”. When Sinn Féin sat down to talk with them, the Fianna Fáil representatives (not including Councillor O’Callaghan, by the way) made clear to us straightaway that they did not want to talk about policies or issues, only mayoral and committee positions.

As the largest party elected by the voters in Dublin City with 16 seats, it was Sinn Féin's prerogative to select which year we would take our turn to occupy the position of Mayor. And, yes, we did select the year 2015/2016 because Easter 2016 is the Centenary of the Rising and the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and we would be proud, as would any self-respecting Irish public representatives, to play a central role in the commemorations and celebrations of that momentous event in our history.

Councillor O’Callaghan then reverted to the politics of “where were you in 1916?”, claiming the heritage of the Easter Rising for Fianna Fáil while accusing Sinn Féin of wanting to hijack it.

He claims we will use the centenary to attempt to justify the IRA’s campaign of 1969 to 1997. Fianna Fáil’s founders, some of whom Councillor O’Callaghan named, used the 1916 Rising to justify the IRA’s role in the Civil War and Fianna Fáil enjoyed the active support of the IRA in the election victories that brought them to power in 1932 and 1933.

But where do these historical arguments get us today? Not very far. Much more important is the fact that today we have a successful Peace Process on which we need to build. Any objective observer looking at Sinn Féin’s role in that process has to acknowledge that we have led by example and have championed inclusivity and anti-sectarianism.

Let’s be very clear. The legacy of the Easter Rising belongs to ALL the people of Ireland, not to any single party or group.

It is inclusive republicanism – embracing Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter – with equality for all who share our island. It is about uniting the people of Ireland by peaceful means and building a true Republic and, in the words of the Proclamation, “cherishing all the children of the nation equally”.

Perhaps that is what Councillor O’Callaghan and his colleagues in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael really fear.

The citizens of Dublin rejected the politics and the economics of gross inequality in 2014. The Centenary of the 1916 Rising in 2016 will provide another reminder that the Republic of Pearse and Connolly and Markievicz has yet to be built while we still have a divided Ireland, mass unemployment and emigration, a housing crisis, a legacy of debt bearing down on families, and persistent poverty in many of our communities.

The legacy of 1916 demands that we work tirelessly to transform this city and this country.