
The one hundredth anniversary of the Irish Easter 1916 uprising - jseliger
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/03/one-hundredth-anniversary-easter-1916-uprising.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+marginalrevolution%2Ffeed+%28Marginal+Revolution%29
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rustynails
I have no Irish ancestry that I know of. I wasn't moved by this article at
all. However, I did greatly resonate with this comment below the article.

"The Republic 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 of its parts, cherishing
all of the children of the nation equally”

It's interesting that the concepts of equal rights and equal opportunity no
longer exist. The last 5 or so years have seen a great shift to Political
Correctness and gender based quotas (eg. Code.org). This is achieved through
reverse discrimination (which is code for blatant sexism).

I'm not actually sure why the world should recognise this day among many other
significant historical events. Australians remember the Eureka Stockade but I
would not expect the world to show much interest.

Whether or not the Irish should care is another matter. I don't know enough
about Irish culture to compare this to significant events like the great
potato famine or The Troubles (Catholics vs Protestants), but I can see why it
isn't getting much attention.

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ZanyProgrammer
Actually the Irish Free State (and then the Republic) were, for much of the
20th century, heavily dominated by the Catholic Church, and very, very
socially conservative. Its only been recently that that has (for very
depressing reasons) ceased to be a major factor in Irish life. I'm sorry if it
sounds like its code for Tumblr/SJWs, but to me it sounds like Ireland is
finally getting over its 20th century past.

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tablewatcher
Irish guy here who was taught all of this history in school. My overriding
sense is that of disillusionment with the commemorations. The media outlets
are trying to induce a sense of patriotism that I cannot feel because it's too
far removed from our modern lives, the internet has brought the world closer
anyway so these acts were for what? Being branded one nationality instead of
another. What difference does it make when the vast percentage of my Irish
friends live in Canada, Australia, UK, Germany anyway, forced out by a
government that nationalised banking debt and ruined my generation's chance of
a normal life that the previous one enjoyed. My friends won't return because
none of them can afford a house and could never raise a family on the taxes we
have here. Its like being told by an abusive partner that "No, I wont hit you
again". Maybe others will have good counterpoints but this is my perspective
on it.

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discreteevent
I remember seeing a documentary once on the stories of Irish immigrants who
went to the US at the end of the 19th century. One of them had left because he
was an industrious small farmer but the British had introduced taxes where if
you had done well enough to improve your property (was it called a window
tax?) they simply nailed you. They punished people who were you too productive
in order to keep them down. Not to mention how the British behaved during the
famine.

So maybe you could call that oppression? And agree that it was not a good
thing? That the revolution was about more than just "being branded one
nationality instead of another".

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tablewatcher
The window tax, along with the Chimney tax was implemented in a lot of
countries in that era, including England. The current effective rate of tax is
55% in Ireland along (with a sales tax of 23%) for people earning the highest
level of wages (the entry criteria into this highest rate is the lowest in
Europe). You get minimal services for that, including a passable heathcare
system where everyone still needs private health insurance. Road taxes,
Property tax, Water charges, Capital gain are all exceptionally high so I
really don't see the current situation better than past times except for
material changes. The low corporation tax rate utilised by foreign
multinationals is another slap in the face where the citizens are charged one
rate and the corporations another.

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cafard
"I am struck by how underrepresented this topic is in my Twitter feed."

How much would be enough? I have read a fair bit about Irish history, but I
didn't think about the anniversary until this morning, when I heard it
mentioned on the radio.

~~~
bostonpete
It's also worth noting that the 100th anniversary isn't actually until April
24.

