One hundred years on from the 1916 Easter Rising, I spoke to James Connolly and Eamonn Ceannt

Ireland is marking the centenary of the rebellion which paved the way to Irish independence a century ago.

Thousands of relatives of the rebels, who seized prominent buildings and proclaimed an independent republic in a rebellion that lasted six days, have gathered in Dublin for the anniversary.

I spoke to the descendants of Padraig Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt and James Connolly, who all signed the proclamation and were executed for their role in the rebellion, to ask how they feel as the anniversary is marked.

James Connolly Heron, great-grandson of the socialist revolutionary James Connolly

“This is the event that lead to the freedoms that we enjoy today, it’s a pivotal moment in history. From hundreds of years of colonial rule and conquest. It is the pivotal moment in our history so of course it should be remembered. The people who struck that blow should be remembered and paid tribute to… To be around for the centenary is an amazing thing in itself.”

Eamonn Ceannt, grand-nephew of his namesake

“I think the key word here is Rising. There’s many reasons why the Rising happened, not only hundreds of years of colonial rule but very severe repression in the 1800s when the Irish people tried to rise many times.

The Rising was against social injustice, cruel, violent social injustice, particularly against the nationalist, Catholic community. If you were alive in the 1800s and early 1900s and walked through the city of Dublin, the tenements were the most extensive in Europe. More girls had to resort to prostitution than in Paris, which was a city many times the size of Dublin. The poverty, the inequality, and the violence against so many elements in the population was revolting, and the revolution was a rising up against this situation.

It was a revolution by an extraordinary group of creative people and thinkers, and I think their execution was a great loss to this country.”

Eamonn Ceannt, who is the former Vice President of University College Dublin, said that Ireland should remember its history and offer a helping hand to Syrian people.

“We are a republic and I think Ireland has a particular responsibility at the current moment because our Rising grew out of the 1800s and particularly the famine in which two million people either died or emigrated and became refugees in other countries particularly America. That was a quarter of our population of eight million. Now we are looking at a country, Syria where a third of their population are being killed or are refugees, and I think we have a responsibility to respond to that situation in an overt public way. Because we’ve come through that. I think it would be a nice time to remember that we were once a nation of refugees.”

Ben Phillips, the great grand nephew of Padraig Pearse, who read the proclamation of independence in 1916

Philips is English and travelled for the centenary from Kenya, where he works for the NGO ActionAid.

“Being here for the official commemorations of the Rising is my way of paying tribute to my great grand uncle Padraig Pearse and the other rebels for their refusal to accept inequality and their determination to pursue their dream of a society of ‘equal rights and opportunity, cherishing all children equally’. The message of Ireland’s 1916 Rising one hundreds years on is that no one is a second class citizen and we can challenge inequality. In my work now in ActionAid I work to support communities in their work for a more equal world. It’s not a coincidence that I ended up working for a social justice NGO.”

Padraig Pearse, the school teacher and poet who for many became the figurehead of the rebellion.

Ruth Ceannt, 31, a doctor and the great grand niece of Eamonn Ceannt

“I feel very proud to have the history in our family.. It’s not just nationalism, those who fought in the Rising were fighting for a republic, a nation of equals where every race creed and class were treated equally and men and women were equal. I’m very proud of what they were trying to achieve.

I think a lot of people have forgotten that at that time the Irish Catholic majority were treated as second class citizens, what would now be termed structural violence, consistently oppressed and kept in that cycle of poverty and deprivation.”

You can see the signatures of Ceannt, Connolly and Pearse on the proclamation, which declared “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland”.