An outburst of pride in the tricolour... but that was in Italy

BY fluke, I was in Italy in 2011, the year the country celebrated the 150th anniversary of unification. It was in the summer , a few months after the main springtime ceremonies marking the country’s foundation as a modern state and the streets were still a riot of colour. The Italian tricolour hung from public buildings, balconies were decorated in bunting of red, white and green and in all the cities I visited, there were posters advertising a programme of events celebrating the people’s pride in their citizenship. Now I cannot enlighten you about its budget or whether the celebrations were long in gestation or pulled together at the last minute .

All I can say is that from where I’m sitting now, some 17 months before the centenary of 1916, the chances of the same festive spirit and pride infecting our streets seems very remote indeed.

Last week, the Government launched an eleventh-hour initiative to rescue the event from disarray and from chronic public and political apathy. It appointed John Concannon from Bord Fáilte, who worked on the Gathering and the Queen Elizabeth and Barack Obama State visits, as well as top Government troubleshooter Martin Fraser to the project.

Hopefully, they can inject some pizzazz into the event and remind us that while patriotic fervour may be in short supply and whatever dark shadow the modern Sinn Féin party casts over the event, 1916 was a defining moment in our history.

For all our subsequent failures, we went where the Scots couldn’t go even a few months ago and had the courage of our convictions.