The Easter Rising, Sinn Féin and 'The Man from the Daily Mail'

SOME PEOPLE may have been puzzled to see Thursday's edition of the Irish Daily Mail claiming that “Sinn Féin are hijacking the Proclamation” and the Easter Rising by including the 1916 Proclamation on some of the party's leaflets. Seasoned republicans may not have been so surprised.

In a poorly-researched piece for the Irish stablemate of Britain's most rabid newspaper, Political Editor Senan Molony goes on to claim Sinn Féin is the only major party whose founders were not involved in the Rising.

Of course, this is complete nonsense. Two of the party's founding members were actually executed by the British Army after the uprising.

Historian Brian Hanley asserts that “there were dozens of Sinn Féin members or ex-members among the rank and file of the rebels”.

It may be a shock for the Daily Mail to learn that, at the founding meeting of Sinn Féin, held in the Rotunda on 28 November 1905, were many who would go on to fight in the Easter Rising. These included Pádraig Pearse and Michael O'Hanrahan, who were both executed for their part in the insurrection.

Others present at the founding meeting include the Irish Citizen Army's Constance Markievicz, who was sentenced to death for her role as second-in-command of the St Stephen's Green garrison but her sentence was later commuted. Sinn Féin's leader on Dublin Corporation, W. T. Cosgrave, also took part as did fellow Corporation member Seán T. O'Kelly.

Another executed leader was Seán MacDiarmada, who served as the National Organiser for Sinn Féin.

Neither Fine Gael nor Fianna Fáil existed in 1916 and both came about following the Civil War.

Fianna Fáil was founded in 1926 by those within Sinn Féin who opposed the Treaty but were willing to take seats in the Free State Parliament. In 1933, a coalition of right-wing and quasi-fascist organisations amalgamated to form Fine Gael.

Much of Senan Molony's article is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the Sinn Féin party in its early years. Far from a streamlined party it was in fact a 'broad church' that included republicans, monarchists and trade unionists – all allied in their support for an independent Ireland and drawn to the party by the high quality of the party's newspapers published by Arthur Griffith.

Later in the lazy Daily Mail piece, column inches are given to Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone, who criticises Sinn Féin literature for being adorned with “Sinn Féin's own Easter lilies”.

In fact, the Easter lily belongs to no party. These badges were first launched in the 1920s by Cumann na mBan to raise funds for the dependants of imprisoned republicans. Activists from all parties and none often wear the emblem on the anniversary of the Easter Rising, including Senator Noone's fellow party member, Frank Feighan TD.

The claim that Sinn Féin had no link to the Rising (despite newspapers at the time dubbing it the “Sinn Féin Rebellion”) is something repeated ad nauseum by Establishment commentators in recent months. Those from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil use it as distraction to brush away criticism of their failure to deliver on the ideals of the Proclamation despite having several decades in power to do so. 

The Daily Mail in Ireland shares the Tory club loathing that its 'mother ship' in England is notorious for in its rabid rants against asylum seekers and refugees, liberals and the Left.

Is it because it wouldn't be surprising that there'd be another Rising scares the man from the Daily Mail?