Rising ideals buried under a mountain of austerity

RYAN TUBRIDY is correct to highlight the degeneration of O’Connell Street. This week, he pointed out that the GPO was where the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was issued in 1916. ‘And now what? Probably the biggest kip of a street in the country,’ he said.

In drawing attention to the shabbiness of our main thoroughfare, Tubridy is also inadvertently showing how the ideals of 1916 have been degraded, particularly since the recession.

Ten years ago as the 90th anniversary of the Rising approached, President Mary McAleese set a buoyant mood, saying we finally had the means to realise the ambitions of our founding fathers.

‘For many years the social agenda of the Rising was an unrealisable aspiration, until now, that is, when our prosperity has created a real opportunity for ending poverty and promoting true equality of opportunity for our people and when those idealistic words have started to become a lived reality and a determined ambition,’ she said.

The tragedy is how those cherished ideals were the first to be sacrificed on the altar of austerity. Will that get a mention in 2016?