Page 17 - GAHS Journal Volume 9

GREYSTONES ARCHAEOLOGICAL & HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL VOLUME 9

Modern opinion, while sympathetic to and admiring of those
involved in the struggle for independence, is much more critical
of the efforts in the founding generation to build up the State and
run a viable economy. Yet they did it in adverse circumstances
without the possibility of recourse to outside aid. Travelling
across England under escort by train on transfer from Dartmoor
to Lewes Jail, Thomas Ashe, writing to his sister, wondered ‘will
we ever see any tall chimney stacks in Ireland except those of
the distilleries and breweries’. It was necessary to create a small
and protected manufacturing industry for the domestic market.
But the Sinn Féin economic model could only take the country
so far. It did not have the answer to falling population and
continuing emigration or the difficulty post-Second World War of
meeting rising expectations. Too much social responsibility was
outsourced to the Church.

We know the sequel, the progress and the stumbles, after a
new strategy that involved an about-turn was adopted. We had
to cope with and find some solution to the Northern Ireland
conflict that did not involve the domination of one community
over the other. Our commitment to the European Union
transformed our relative position. National sovereignty today has
less the absolute and indefeasible character claimed for it in the
Proclamation, and is more about, in Emmet’s words, taking our
place amongst the nations of the world. Unexpectedly, as a
result of Brexit, we find ourselves likely to be further separated
from our British neighbours. Probably while the process of
negotiation and the politics will be bumpy, at the end of it all there
will be a new modus vivendi which will be reasonably
satisfactory, as Britain enters a form of external association with
the EU. Ireland can hold its own in the EU, being well able to
network, and there will be opportunities.

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