From our archives: Remembering history of Easter Lily emblem

By Tom Gillespie

NINETY years ago this Easter, The Connaught Telegraph carried a story outlining the history of the Easter Lily - and why it should be worn!

It stated: To the thousands who have grown up during the last 17 years (since 1916), the story of Easter Week is but a legendary tale.

Few realise what the Rising of 1916 meant to Irishmen at home and abroad. It was true that volunteering had been going on for years. Young men had been meeting in open and in secret, but few guessed what their great destiny was to be.

Suddenly, from being regarded as ‘visionary, irresponsible youths’, they became defendants of Ireland, historic soldiers fighting for Ireland’s long-lost liberties.

The news of the taking over of the General Post Office (GPO) at noon on that Easter Monday morning spread like wildfire through the city of Dublin.

By one o’clock there were sightseers on the way to confirm the rumour that for the first time in Ireland’s history a Republican flag was floating over one of Dublin’s official buildings.

Long they remained gazing at the flag of defiance flying proudly over Dublin’s capital.

All who looked upon that little green, white and orange banner felt that a standard had been raised that day which would never, never be lowered.

Superior force might raze every stone of the building to the ground, superior force might wipe out every living defender of that standard, but no force on earth would prevent the flag from flying victoriously over a free, united Ireland.

Simultaneously with the hoisting of the flag a proclamation, stating their aims and objects, signed by Padraig Pearse, James Connolly, Tom Clarke and the four other members of the Provisional Government, was issued from the GPO.

The opening paragraphs of the proclamation stated: ‘Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and the dead generations from which she received her old tradition of Nationhood, Ireland through us summons her children to her flag and strikes for freedom.

‘Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizens Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes the moment, and supported by her exiled children in America and by the gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.

‘We declare the right of the people of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies to be sovereign and indefeasible … We hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a sovereign and independent state, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations’.

For this simple statement of our fundamental and inalienable rights, the signatories paid the supreme penalty. But their work was done. They had laid down the goal at which all future patriots would aim.

No Irishman worthy of the name dare accept less than the fundamental claims laid down in the Proclamation.

Seventeen long years have passed (since 1916) during which the flower of Ireland’s manhood have given their lives in defence of that Proclamation. The Proclamation is still merely a historical document, its principles ignored, its aims unachieved.

It has recently (1933) been suggested that a monument fitting to the memory of the Men of Easter Week should be erected on the GPO. The greatest, nay, the only, monument worthy to commemorate their sacrifice is the realisation of their aims and objects - the enthronement of the Irish republic.

In 1926 Cumann na mBan chose a lily as the emblem to be worn in honour of the Men of Easter Week and the dead who gave their lives for Ireland in every generation.

Every succeeding year has seen the lily more widely worn until last year (1932), when the emblem was displayed by 99 per cent of the population. An English paper describing last year’s (1932) display, wrote: “Every man, woman and child in the procession wore an Easter lily, the emblem of the Republican Ireland, which pledges the bearer to use every endeavour to break the connections with England and to establish a free and sovereign Irish Republic. Not only that, but what was more significant, the lily was worn by nine out of 10 of the throngs of spectators who watched the marching thousands.”

This year (1933), let the English comment be that the lily was worn by every man, woman and child in Ireland. The lily, which includes the colours green, white and orange, recalls the hoisting of the Tricolour over the GPO in 1916.

It signifies the union of North and South through love and friendship. It is the symbol of republican Ireland.

In wearing the Easter Lily we raise again that Banner of Easter Week: we proclaim our hope, our confidence, our determination to see the Flag of Easter Week flowing over a free, sovereign Republic for all Ireland.

Issued from the Publicity Department, Easter Lily Committee, Cumann na mBan, 12, St. Andrew Street, Dublin.

According to Wikipedia, the Easter Lily was introduced in 1926 by Cumann na mBan. Proceeds from the sale of the badge went to the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Dependants Fund. Traditionally, they were sold outside church gates on Easter Sunday and worn at Republican commemorations.

In the early years of their existence, people from a broad political spectrum - from Fianna Fáil to Sinn Féin - wore lilies, which were sold by members of those political parties as well as the IRA, Fianna Éireann, and Conrad na Gaeilge.

In the 1930s, relations between Fianna Fáil and the IRA deteriorated considerably.

Following the murder by the IRA of Richard More O'Ferrall in February 1935, the Fianna Fáil leadership instructed party members to stop selling the lily as it was ‘the symbol of an organisation of whose methods we disapprove'.

For its Easter commemorations that same year, Fianna Fáil introduced a new symbol called the Easter Torch. This was sold for a number of years but was discontinued as the badge proved unpopular with the party grassroots, many of whom continued to wear the Easter Lily.