Abstract

ABSTRACT
Coming together at Easter: Commemorating the 1916 Rising in Ireland, 1916-1966
Antoine Guillemette, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2013
This dissertation explores how the Easter Rising was commemorated between 1916 and 1966 in the 26 southern counties which were granted independence following the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. What follows surveys the various impacts that collective memories of Easter Week had on the modern development of Ireland, discussed through six chapters. The unfolding narrative reviews the acts of commemorative defiance devised during the final years of the British Empire, leads us to the various uses of public space through processions, parades, gatherings and erections of memorials in the first decades of independence, and examines commemorations in provincial Ireland and within Irish-speaking communities in a post-Second World War Ireland. The concluding chapter assesses how these dynamics re-emerged in one way or another during the expansive 1966 golden jubilee. Altogether, the ensuing story highlights the multivocal nature of 1916 commemorations which, for better or worse, persistently played a part in the formations and expressions of Irish identity up to 1966.