Mission Accomplished

WASHINGTON, D.C. - It's a long time since Easter 1916 was invoked in the U.S. Congress, but Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern did just that last Wednesday, April 30.

The retiring taoiseach was on his victory lap of the U.S., and a Joint Session of Congress had been arranged for him.

Up until recent years the legacy of Easter 1916 and the Irish uprising was a deeply disputed one. Opponents of the IRA campaign claimed that the Rising had given their cause spurious legitimacy. Supporters stated it was Ireland's foundation legacy, the very touchstone around which the modern state was built.

Until Ahern reinstituted the annual 1916 march and commemoration in 2006, the numbers who feared to speak about Easter week was far greater than those who wanted to remember it.

Easter 1916 was finally put back in its correct place atop the pantheon of Irish history by Ahern's remarks in Washington.

He quoted the most remarkable passage in the proclamation: "The Re-public guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally."

The words are resonant of the Declaration of Independence, especially on the pursuit of happiness. They also place in perspective the remarkable vision of Ireland's founders as surely as the Declaration of Independence did for Jefferson and Washington and all the others.

Ahern's speech captured the new moment perfectly, and by making it before the great institutions created by the American founders he gave the men of Easter 1916 even greater legitimacy.

Last Wednesday was also Ahern's last hurrah in the U.S, and a number of American politicians had turned up to wish him Godspeed.

The great chamber of the House of Representatives was full and Irish leaders of our era - Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Patrick Leahy, Congressmen Pete King, Ritchie Neal and Jim Walsh among them - had turned up to say farewell to one of the most popular Irish politicians ever on this side of the Atlantic.

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Nster.com