1916 Rising in Ireland. Progress or regress?

Al Jassas hi;

As you say you can not tell me the history of my country, indeed I only know it too well. I have to say dissident Irish people and your own conclusions are not a good mix. Regarding your point about the Catholic Church it was well noted the first time and as I explained was complete rubbish, simply reiterating the point doesn�t change that fact. It is still a myth; indeed, subsequent responses to this thread have actually proven me right on that.

However, you do say going against the Catholic Church was a death sentence for politicians; maybe you would like to name some names or give some examples? Off the top of my head I can think of one politician who went against the Catholic Church many times, �amon de Valera and most notably when he refused to make the Catholic Church the official Church in his 1937 Constitution. De Valera was, of course, the most successful Irish politician of this period.

As for your contention that Irish People have no right to Independence, well, a good few million Irish men and women would disagree, somehow I think their opinion matters more than yours. Your contention is nothing to do with history by the way, it is politics which I refuse to discuss. I will say one thing though; staying under foreign domination would not have improved the lot of the Irish people. Ireland would have still remained a neglected region social conditions would have been bad if not worse. In fact I could envision a scenario whereby disaffection with social conditions, combined with the tradition of Armed Insurrection, as well as the spread communism, aligned with radicals such as Connolly, Larkin, Mellows, O�Casey and others would have probably made Ireland ripe for sustained violence that could well have even led to a communist takeover, maybe a European Cuba?

Britain did not force conscription on Ireland because it was not politically expedient for them to do so, not as you seem to believe out of the goodness of their heart. I think you have just proven your own lack of understanding of Irish history here. Ireland did indeed send their wishes for independence peacefully and democratically. For the thirty years previous to the WWI Irish People had agitated democratically for self rule, in 1919 they even sent a message through their democratically elected Government to the Peace Conference which Britain refused to even acknowledge. So I think its fair to say that Irish People had been waiting long enough, the simple fact is that the British Government did not want to grant Irish People Independence as ALL the evidence shows.

Hello F�dhla