Echo Editorial: Celebrating the Rising

Irish-Americans rarely suffer from the inferiority complex that still exists in Ireland. The “post-colonial cringe” is a stranger here.
That is why the current debate in Ireland about whether it is appropriate for the Irish government to celebrate the 1916 Easter Rising seems almost amusing from this side of the Atlantic.
What sort of country would not celebrate its independence? What kind of person feels apologetic about his or her nation’s fight for freedom?
And yet, there are some in Ireland whose instinct is still to cower, who are convulsed by a fear that celebrating the Easter Rising will offend someone, somewhere