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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Remember Patrick Pearse's 'Beware the risen people' as despots feel their people's rage

Posted on Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 03:56 PM

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"And I say to my people's masters: Beware,

Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people,..",

Patrick Pearse

There are many tin pot dictators sleeping less easily in their beds tonight with Pearse's thought in mind.

Democracy is the reason we have not seen similar riots as Egypt and Tunisia in Ireland where a massively unpopular government has clung on by their fingernails for far too long.

But the Irish people know they will have their say, most likely on February 25th and they will be waiting in the long grass to deliver their verdict on this government.

It will be dramatic but it will be achieved with a violent protest anywhere.

What we are witnessing in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere is a great stirring of peoples for too long under the control of despots.

In Egypt the people have had no democratic outlet as Mubarak has ruled by emergency decree for 30 years now. elections are a farce and young people are utterly hopeless.

Yet, lest we feel smug it is not that long ago when Ireland teetered between democracy and a form of fascism. After the Civil War the Cumann Na Gaedhal government took power and five years later lost it to their deadly enemies in that civil war.

There were some who counseled then leader Wiliam T. Cosgrave not to concede and to stage a coup.

To his eternal credit he did not and handed over power peacefully.

Here in America there were many who wanted George Washington to proclaim himself king but he stood with the constitution and stepped down.

Democracy is a fragile flower. great European powers such as Germany, Spain, Portugal all experienced dictatorships in the recent past.

Turkey, once ruled by a military junta, is now a flourishing democracy and an example for all Muslim nations that a vigorous democracy is possible.

Eastern Europe was recently one big gulag before communism fell.

In Tianamen Square in 1989 they created lookalikes of the Statue of Liberty to signify their desire for freedon.

Even today China's rulers remain petrified of any democratic expression.

Hopefully there will be a few less dictatorships in the Middle East when all this is over. we should not fear that change but rather embrace it.

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Kells46 | Jan 31, 2011, 08:00 PM EST

Never heard of Padraig Pearse did you say ANCAVKER????? The Mother by Padraig Pearse I do not grudge them: Lord, I do not grudge My two strong sons that I have seen go out To break their strength and die, they and a few, In bloody protest for a glorious thing, They shall be spoken of among their people, The generations shall remember them, And call them blessed; But I will speak their names to my own heart In the long nights; The little names that were familiar once Round my dead hearth. Lord, thou art hard on mothers: We suffer in their coming and their going; And tho' I grudge them not, I weary, weary Of the long sorrow---And yet I have my joy: My sons were faithful, and they fought.

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Towngate | Jan 28, 2011, 10:36 PM EST

MALONEY: Is maith liom e! Slainte! Btw: I have a couple of the little rascals fanning me with ostrich plumes as I write,so they have their uses. I picked them up.y'know,when I went to try and stop those other chappies smoking their medication, but I couldn't see past the cataracts and anyway, I got horribly stuck whilst attempting to enter the Lower Niall! Pip!Pip!

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maloney | Jan 28, 2011, 09:35 PM EST

Towngate..a true commodian. The little sheetheads are taking over the dunes everwhere. If we can stop the Lower Niall brethern from smoking there AIDS meds we will rule the world.

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Towngate | Jan 28, 2011, 08:11 PM EST

"ABDUL! come here quickly! I have had a terrible Niallmare! .... I am sleeping less easily in my bed for I cannot help thinking about another little Tin-pot Tyrant in the Middle West who tried to put himself in charge of a country long ago...We must learn our lesson from his wise writings! .......... Go quickly and write out my orders to Surrender!"

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ancavker | Jan 28, 2011, 01:12 PM EST

The only difference is the Islamists will probably hijack these revolutions just like they did in Iran. They may be stagnant now under the dictatorships, but with the islamists they will be going back;back to the 12th century.

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ancavker | Jan 28, 2011, 01:11 PM EST

There are more than a few Irish who never evn heard of Patrick Pearse.

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 28, 2011, 12:36 PM EST

O'Dowd: You're living in fantasyland. The Irish are a spineless, docile lot. The whole world, insofar as it thinks of them at all, is laughing at them. The Irish need to go get a backbone transplant in Tunisia. The Irish aren't sheep--sheep have a spinal cord. The Irish are jellyfish, without a sting. Now I see how the Irish are one of the few nations in history to abandon their own language and adopt the language of another country.

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ancavker | Jan 28, 2011, 09:44 AM EST

Niall: I bet there are more than a few Irish people who have never heard of Patrick Pearse.

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