For the Irish, this Easter was a time for renewing old habits and reopening old wounds.
On Sunday, Ireland’s armed forces marched through Dublin, the capital, for the first time in 35 years, reviving the traditional commemoration of a failed rebellion against British rule in 1916, which helped set the stage for Irish independence. The commemoration was halted in the 1970s, when the Irish Republican Army claimed kinship to the 1916 movement.
On Sunday, about 120,000 spectators, including Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and President Mary McAleese, watched 2,500 soldiers and army veterans parade up Dublin’s main boulevard, O’Connell Street, where the bulk of the fighting took place.
While similar military processions are common elsewhere in Europe, the restoration of the Dublin parade became a lightning rod in recent months for an acerbic national debate over that legendary insurrection, known as the Easter Rising.
Since Ahern announced plans for the ceremonies last year, Ireland’s talk shows, opinion pages and political meetings have been dominated by angry arguments about whether the 1916 rebels were heroic patriots or ideological bullies with guns, and whether a national display of armed might was an appropriate way to remember the event.
The rebellion laid the groundwork for the unfolding of events in Ireland during the 20th century. Three Irish political parties trace their origins to that week of violence, which killed 450 people – more than half of them civilians.