North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?
US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty Anti-Empire >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
What Does David Lammy Mean by a State? Fri May 09, 2025 09:00 | James Alexander Foreign Secretary David Lammy has said it is "unacceptable" that Palestinians don't yet have a state. Professor James Alexander wonders if Lammy has thought through what a Palestinian state would actually look like.
The post What Does David Lammy Mean by a State? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour?s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the I... Fri May 09, 2025 07:00 | Richard Eldred In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour?s grooming gang shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK trade deal and Canada?s ignored Covid vaccine injuries.
The post In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour?s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada?s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Fri May 09, 2025 00:56 | Richard Eldred A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia Thu May 08, 2025 19:00 | Dr David McGrogan The sugar tax sums up Britain's descent into a technocratic dystopia, says Dr David McGrogan. While our Government does almost nothing well, it remains a world-leader in passive-aggressive, surreptitious nudging.
The post The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
UK ?Shafted? by US Trade Deal Thu May 08, 2025 17:44 | Will Jones The US-UK trade deal announced today is a clear win for Trump, says Sam Ashworth-Hayes, leaving the UK worse off than in March and opening up UK markets in exchange only for reducing recently imposed tariffs.
The post UK “Shafted” by US Trade Deal appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Be warned – 'The Revolution Papers' is an all-male baby!
national |
politics / elections |
opinion/analysis
Monday January 18, 2016 12:51 by Billy Fitzpatrick

Critique of Proclamation underlines all-male composition of 'Rev Papers' editorial team
The level of involvement by women in the 1916 Rising is historically unprecedented. This is recognised and welcomed in the Proclamation. The Rising, and the Proclamation which attempted to explain it, is of international significance. The high level of participation by women in the Irish revolution was historically unprecedented, and this is anticipated in the very opening address of the 1916 Proclamation itself.
However, the much heralded 'Revolution Papers' first episode fails to reflect this. Tasked with ‘reading between the lines’ of the Proclamation, reviewer Ronan McGreevy focusses exclusively on what he sees as its apparent contradictions. In the process, he manages to miss entirely the grand sweep of this profoundly inclusive, egalitarian, modern and, in the main, beautifully written, state-founding document of the early 20th century.
The reviewer ignores entirely the opening words of the document, ‘Irishmen and Irishwomen’, probably the first time in history that women are addressed directly as equals in a political manifesto. The same fate is meted out to the pledge to establish a government ‘elected by the suffrages of all its men and women’. Constance Markievicz, who is believed to have been the first to read aloud the Proclamation (at Liberty Hall, on Easter Monday morning) went on to become one of the first women in the modern world elected to parliament. She would become the first to wield a ministry. The dismissal, by omission, of the Proclamation’s historic gender equality significance, on the part of the 'The Revolution Papers' reviewer, is nothing short of astonishing.
Summarily ignored, also, are
The fact that the Proclamation’s progressive ideals were far from universally agreed in the early 20th century. Even a cursory look at the contemporary ‘Ulster Covenant’, would have confirmed this.
The fact that the Rising, and the ideals of the Proclamation, received a resounding endorsement at the first possible opportunity, the 1918 elections.
That the 1916 Proclamation inspired many of the liberation movements of the 20th century, acknowledged by the likes of Nehru in India, Che Guevara in Latin America and, more recently, Kader Asmal in South Africa (on receiving the French Légion d’Honneur, Dec 2005)
Enforced partition by the imperial power – the effects of which are still with us. One of the signatories (James Connolly) had warned that such an eventuality would produce a ‘carnival of reaction’ on both sides of the border
That 1916 inaugurated the real ‘war to end all (imperial) wars’ in Ireland, in that it ended the practice of recruitment of young Irishmen as fodder for Britain's endless colonial wars. Instead, the armed forces of the new, independent state would distinguish themselves as peacekeepers in the service of the United Nations.
Despite this, many of the less prominent articles are helpful and the reproduced newspapers and photographs fascinating. Gross oversights like the above mentioned, could be avoided, perhaps, in the future if ‘The Revolution Papers’ were to draft some women into their current all-male editorial board and all-male team of contributors – and, in the process, embrace the spirit of 100 years ago!
|