Pritchett FROMDublin: A Portrait VII The official commemoration of the Easter Rising has just been held in Dublin as I write. The British have astonished Dubliners by regarding the men of the Rising as heroes; it would be easy to say about this admiration that it is one more example of the English habit of forgiving those you have injured. Certainly the English have short memories and the Irish have long ones: in fact the admiration has two more serious sources. First: in this year the British are remembering the loss of an equally patriotic and romantic generation, tens of thousands of them Irish, who lost their lives on the Somme. Secondly: the mass of British people in 1914 found it intolerable that an Irish settlement should have been delayed by a powerful section of their ruling class who were as oppressive to them as they were to the Irish. The Rising and the War disposed of those troubles. Only one act of violence preceded this year’s commemoration. Acts of violence are likely to last for ever in Ireland, for the Irish are privately vain of their taste for illegality and they enjoyed the gesture for its own sake.
What do You think about The Pritchett Century (2012)?
