Recalling the story of the Easter Lily
By Tom Gillespie
ON April 8, 1933, an article appeared in The Connaught Telegraph concerning the story of the Easter Lily and why it should be worn.
It read: To the thousands who have grown up since the 1916 Rising, the story of the Easter Week is but a legendary tale. Few realise what the Rising of 1916 meant to Irishmen at home and abroad.
It is true that volunteering has been gone for many years. Young men have 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 defenders of Ireland, heroic soldiers fighting for Ireland’s long-lost liberties.
The news of the taking over of the General Post Office (GPO) at noon that Easter Monday morning spread like wildfire through the city.
By one o’clock there were sightseers on their 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 that 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 that 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 four other members of the Provisional Government, was issued from the GPO.
The opening paragraph of the Proclamation stated: “Irishmen and Irishwomen: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives 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 Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and supported by her exiled children in America and by 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 States, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of 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 that the fundamental claims laid down in the Proclamation.
The 1933 article said 17 long years had passed, during which the flower of Ireland’s manhood has given their lives in defence of that Proclamation. That Proclamation is still merely a historical document, its principles ignored, its aims unachieved.
It has recently 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 Republican Ireland, which pledges the bearer to use every endeavour to break the connection 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 every 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 floating over a free, sovereign Republic for all Ireland. - (Issued from the Publicity Department, Easter Lily Committee, Cumann na mBan, 12, St. Andrew Street, Dublin.)