Yesterday we went on a walking tour that focused on the events of the Easter Rising 1916.  Surprisingly, our tour guide was Lorcan Collins, the author of The Easter Rising: A Guide to Dublin 1916, which we had read for class.  Mr. Collins has done a lot of research and is very well informed on the subject, and he was the best tour guide one could hope to have.

What I found interesting and a little surprising was his support of the Irish Republican Army.  This, I have found, is not an uncommon sentiment here.  I was still young when the Troubles came to an official end in Ireland.  I didn’t really understand all that was taking place, but I remember having a sense of it and knew a little about the IRA.  What I remember knowing is that they were dangerous and scary.  They set off bombs.  I had the distinct impression that they were “bad people.”  This impression has continued into my adulthood through portrayals of the IRA in popular culture.  Never have they seemed to be on the right side.  Instead, they are seen in shows like Sons of Anarchy, smuggling weapons and drugs across the Atlantic and working alongside dangerous American gangs.  Gangs – that is the impression that I have always had of the IRA; it wasn’t of a group fighting for what they believed in, it was simply violence and illegal activity.  Even when we watched Michael Collins before leaving for this trip, the IRA was shown as being on the wrong side.  Viewers are encouraged to side with the idea of the Irish Free State and interpret Eamon De Valera as the villain.

This was not Lorcan Collins’ position on the tour.  In his book, he presents a (more or less) objective presentation of the 1916 Easter Rising.  However, in the tour, Mr. Collins voiced much stronger opinions about the Rising and its aftermath.  In terms of the vote to accept the Irish Free State, Lorcan viewed the move as a mistake.  “It is tempting to choose peace,” he said.  He said that he did not blame those who voted for the Free State but that he did think it was the wrong decision.  He painted a new picture, for me, of the Irish Republican Army.  His energy for the cause, and the historical context into which he put the movement, helped me understand the complexity of the issue and some of the motivation.  It also seems that Lorcan Collins is not alone in these sentiments.  With the understanding that I had of the IRA before arriving, I thought that discussing the Troubles would be a taboo topic.  The IRA would be talked about the same way we talk about Americans who join ISIS.  But that’s not it at all.  Many people that I have talked to support the ideas of the IRA, if not all of their actions.  Many of the people here still believe in an Irish Republic and still seem to believe in the importance of taking action to make that a reality.  (I have a feeling, though, that we may see something very different on this subject when we get to Belfast.)