This generation of Irish people should be cautious of
those who politically manipulate and exploit the legacy of 1916 and
surrounding events, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Dr Michael
Jackson said at the annual State commemoration of the Easter Rising at
Arbour Hill in Dublin.
Dr Jackson gave the main sermon at the Mass and
commemoration service held at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Arbour
Hill yesterday.
The archbishop said the legacy of 1916 lay in
the bedrock of contemporary Ireland and it and the subsequent years of
civil war and political accommodation to an emerging Ireland had made a
contribution to “who we are and who we are yet to become”.
“But Ireland cannot forever hide behind an
‘emerging Ireland’ nor should we want to . . . No one event can be taken
in isolation, particularly as generations come and go and also as less
and less of history as it actually happened is part of the lived memory .
. .
“History develops a new function, that of
releasing new energy in a tired and repetitive world, porous to
exploitation by those who know that old fears and old symbols still sell
and who still suppress those who can think otherwise and think for
themselves,” Dr Jackson told the congregation.
President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Enda
Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Chief Justice Mrs Justice Susan Denham
were the chief dignitaries at the annual commemoration.
It culminated
with the President, at the invitation of the Taoiseach, laying a wreath
at the shrine to the leaders executed in the wake of the Rising.
Most members of the Cabinet were also present.
Garda Assistant Commissioner John Twomey and Army Chief of Staff
Lieutenant General Seán McCann were the chief representatives of the
Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces. Dublin Lord Mayor Naoise Ó Muirí
also attended.
Aifreann na Marbh
The chief concelebrant at the Mass, Aifreann na Marbh, was Bishop Raymond Field, an auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, with Msgr Eoin Thynne, head chaplain to the armed forces, and Fr Jerry Carroll.
The
choir came from St Patrick’s senior national school in Corduff,
Blanchardstown, with soloists Mykela O’Sullivan, Natasha Tuite and Janet
Itambo.
The President and his wife, Sabina Coyne,
arrived at the church shortly before 10am.
The President then inspected a
captain’s guard of honour.
Following the Mass, the 1916 commemoration ceremonies were conducted at the plinth of the shrine in the grounds of the church.
There were multidenominational readings from
representatives of the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, the
Jewish congregation, the Presbyterian Church, the Greek Orthodox Church,
the Islamic community and the Methodist Church .