Remembering 1916: The Easter Rising, the Somme and the Politics of Memory in Ireland [Hardcover]

A pioneering analysis of how the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme have been remembered in Ireland since 1916.The year 1916 witnessed the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme - two events that would profoundly shape both politics and commemoration in Ireland thereafter. This volume explores how the memory of these foundational events has been constructed, mythologised and revised over the course of the past century.The year 1916 witnessed the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme - two events that would profoundly shape both politics and commemoration in Ireland thereafter. This volume explores how the memory of these foundational events has been constructed, mythologised and revised over the course of the past century.The year 1916 witnessed two events that would profoundly shape both politics and commemoration in Ireland over the course of the following century. Although the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme were important historical events in their own right, their significance also lay in how they came to be understood as iconic moments in the emergence of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach drawing on history, politics, anthropology and cultural studies, this volume explores how the memory of these two foundational events has been constructed, mythologised and revised over the course of the past century. The aim is not merely to understand how the Rising and the Somme came to exert a central place in how the past is viewed in Ireland, but to explore wider questions about the relationship between history, commemoration and memory.Introduction Richard S. Grayson and Fearghal McGarry; Part I. Memory and Commemoration: 1. Making sense of memory: coming to terms with conceptualisations of historical remembrance Guy Beiner; 2. Ritual, identity and nation: when the historian becomes the high priest of commemoration Dominic Bryan; 3. 'The Irish Republic was proclaimed by poster': the politics of commel'