Remembering the Rising: Irish newspaper coverage of the 1966 and 2016 anniversaries of the 1916 Easter Rising.

O’Donohue, Brendan (2017) Remembering the Rising: Irish newspaper coverage of the 1966 and 2016 anniversaries of the 1916 Easter Rising. Masters thesis, Griffith College.

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Abstract

As he walked towards the Stonebreakers’ Yard in Kilmainham Gaol on 3rd May 1916, Patrick Pearse, the figurehead of the 1916 Easter Rising, was clear in his views that future generations would eventually look kindly upon the men and women who had struck at the heart of an Empire. Over the past century, those ‘unborn generations’ have been debating whether Pearse’s actions - and those of the men and women who fought alongside him that faithful week in April 1916 – were justifiable. Remembrance of historical events are a ‘collision between that which is fixed and that which is fluid’. (Higgins, 2016:7). In other words, there are a myriad of different way in which historical events can be viewed and -most salient to this study – be reported on. Fierce and heated debate about the legitimacy of the Easter Rising have raged for more than a century. This study examines this fierce debate through the prism of the Irish pint press at the occasion of two of its most anticipated anniversaries, the 50th anniversary in 1966 and the centenary in 2016. The study will attempt to compare these two commemorative chapters to ascertain whether the ‘unborn generations’ in 1966 viewed Pearce and his acolytes any differently than those fifty years later in 2016. Through the following questions, the study will endeavour to ascertain what was the media’s view of the 1916 Easter Rising a hundred years on from the event. The study will then look at historic articles from 1966 to show evolution of thought towards this seminal moment in Ireland’s. The questions are as follows: • How did the Irish print media cover the anniversaries of the Easter Rising in 1966 and 2016? • What were the difference in coverage between 1966 and 2016 (if any)? 2 • Has there been a change of perception of the Easter Rising in the print media since the fiftieth anniversary in 1966? The study will be divided into chapters. This first chapter will be a literature review which reviews the literature relevant to the subject matter – the Easter Rising. It will outline how historians, journalists and commentators alike have viewed the events of 1916 thought the past one hundred years – with particular focus upon two salient anniversaries, i.e. in 1966 and 2016.

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