Ballymore man's tribute to Pearse

The 100th anniversary of the death of Padraig Pearse falls on May 3.

Ballymore man Tony Hughes has penned a tribute to the revolutionary hero, in the form of a direct address, which we publish here.

You have Irish blood coursing through your veins and you have English blood too. The fact that you are part British has in the past prompted some of your detractors to question your commitment to ‘the cause’. Your involvement in the events of the past week has dissolved those doubts forever for your commitment has been total. You are a committed revolutionary, an insurrectionist – as committed as any of those that have gone before you - and you are about to pay the ultimate price for the role that you have played in the five days of mayhem that have now been consigned to history.

You are a leader of men, a rebel, molded from the same clay as your heroes Tone and Emmet. Holding formal qualifications in the disciplines of Arts and Law you are an extremely well-educated patriot or anarchist as ‘the Establishment’ might label you. You are a talented writer, author, poet and playwright and an avid admirer of the works of great English writers such as Shakespeare and Milton. You regularly recited from the works of the aforementioned at the select literary and debating society of which you were a member and president of at just nineteen years of age.

You have crammed a lot into your short life – a life that has lasted thirty six years, a life that is about to come to an end. Apart from your literary efforts you have worked as a barrister, as a teacher and as a newspaper editor.   You even founded a newspaper of your own at one stage and you famously founded two schools – St. Enda’s and St. Ita’s. The family business took up some of your time also but that time was minimal in the overall context. It had to be because there were only so many hours in any given day and you couldn’t possibly neglect your work in the promoting of the ideals of the Gaelic League. Your great passion in life is the Irish language. The League is a platform for promotion of the Irish language and Irish culture in general. You could be forgiven for believing that particular organization was tailor-made for you. It wasn’t but it has your fingerprints all over it.

You, yourself are fluent in the Gaelic tongue and perhaps that is the main reason why you fell in love with an area west of the Shannon known as the Gaeltacht. You felt very much at home in Connemara where the mother tongue was in daily use.You felt so much at home there that you decided to make a home among the natives – a home from home, a spiritual retreat, a home in Rosmuc that you shall never see again. Your current home – a single cell in Kilmainham Jail – is the last home that you shall inhabit on this earth. The outcome of your court martial was a foregone conclusion – death by firing squad.

You don’t fear death nor do you fear the manner of your death. In essence you embrace the circumstances of your pending death - embrace your forthcoming demise as enthusiastically as an expectant mother would embrace a forthcoming life. Unlike the would-be mother who looks forward to new life and to new beginnings, you look upon death as a means to an end. You harbour romantic notions when it comes to war and death; where you see glory and immortality, others see tragedy and grief.

You’re single-minded in the extreme, possess a great many positive character traits and….you’re also a dreamer. In your dreams you have adopted the mantles of Tone and Emmet and sought to emulate them and their exploits.   Tales about the ancient Fianna and their deeds have left a lasting impression on your impressionable mind. Your hero, the mythological Celtic warrior Cuchulainn achieved greatness. You aspire to patriotic greatness too.Your dreams for a free Ireland will not be realized in your lifetime because ‘the Rising’ has been well and truly crushed. You are about to die but you won’t be the first of your blood line to lose your life in pursuit of Irish freedom – two of your ancestors on your mother’s side lost their lives in the ill-fated rebellion of 1798.

You are president of a provisional government – a government born out of longing and idealism – a government that effectively died as soon as it was born;  an undemocratically elected administration  never destined to govern.   A lack of firepower, disunity of purpose and extremely poor communications led to a disjointed effort overall. You were, to put it mildly, disappointed at the general public’s attitude towards the Proclamation – a Proclamation signed by you and six others. You anticipated a hostile response to your actions from the British Authorities but certainly didn’t foresee verbal abuse being heaped upon you and your colleagues from ordinary fellow Irish citizens. The situation you now find yourself in could have been averted if the British hadn’t dragged their feet where a very important issue was concerned – Home Rule.

Having lost patience with the slow progress through Parliament of the Home Rule Bill you joined the IRB in December 1913. You became more militant as time went by and you openlypreached the concept of sedition. Your oration from the graveside on the occasion of O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral last August was by all accounts a masterpiece of oratory. While some of your rebel comrades see you as being inept in military matters, even reckless and a 'loose cannon’, they all agree that you are a propagandist without equal.   Your colleagues’ concerns are not without foundation – in your private life you have been reckless! To satisfy your own ambitions you have been careless with money – your own and that of others. As a consequence you have accumulated much debt over the years. Deep down you are a clean-living man of honour ; just ten days ago you did your best to settle your affairs using your Last Will and Testament as an instrument to do so.

Like most who aspire to greatness you too carry an element of vanity within your being – a being that will shortly cease to exist in this realm for the time is now gone 3.00 am. You are still technically the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Republic. In truth though, the title, in common with that of president, was bestowed upon you by default for both McNeill and Connolly, for one reason or another, declined the honour.

 

You are a devout practicing Catholic.Your last confession has been heard and you have received absolution and Holy Communion. You are reconciled with God and you are reconciled to die. You hear the words ‘ready, aim, fire’ but you do not hear the shots that propel you to martyrdom and immortality. It is 3.30 am, the morning of Wednesday May 3rd 1916.   The words once ascribed to Cuchulainn would make for a fitting epitaph for you:-

​‘I care not though I were to live but one day and one night provided my fame and my deeds live after me’

Your forenames are Patrick Henry.  Your name, as Gaeilge, is…..PÁDRAIG MAC PIARAIS.