Rebels of 1916 invoked as Republic marks first independent parliament

President Michael D Higgins was among a raft of political leaders to mark the Dail’s centenary today, which fell on the same date as the killings of two police officers in Soloheadbeg, Co Tipperary – effectively kicking off the Irish War of Independence.

The Dail of 1919 convened following a Sinn Fein landslide in the all-Ireland election of December 2018, which itself came 20 months after the Rising led by Pearse and others.

Mr Higgins, in an address at The Mansion House, Dublin began by saying: “One hundred years ago, our revolutionary forebears, in this place were assembled to realise a dream long suppressed, a dream, as Pádraig Mac Piarais [Padraig Pearse] stated, had been carefully cherished through years of war, famine and rebellion, a dream asserted by every generation of Irishmen and Irishwomen – the dream of a free and independent Irish republic.”

He saluted “the courage of those who risked incarceration, or worse, to gather here on January 21, 1919 to establish the First Dáil Éireann”.

“Let us recognise that they chose a parliament as the means to vindicate the legitimacy of an election fought on the Proclamation of the Republic that had been issued outside the General Post Office in Easter 1916,” he said.

He went on add: “We must recognise, however, on this centenary, that the First Dáil did not represent the aspirations of all of the people on our island. In December 1918, over a quarter of a million men and women, mostly, but not wholly, in the north-east of our island, had voted to maintain the union between Britain and Ireland.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael (the biggest party in the Dail) acknowledged that some of the ideals outlined 100 years ago had not yet been fulfilled, saying: “Although today the rate of child poverty in Ireland is only a fraction of what it was 100 years ago, and is falling, we must do better.”

And Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail – the second largest party in the Dail today – hailed “the inspiring actions of the men and women of 1916, who had stood for a vision of an inclusive, free and outward-looking Ireland”.

He also went on to speak of being “proud” in the work of Eamon De Valera and Constance Markievicz, Fianna Fail’s former leader and chairperson, respectively (both of whom led others in taking up arms in 1916).