The 1916 Rising inspires us to Cherish our Children, not abort them

The nation appears to have wholeheartedly embraced the celebration of the Easter Rising and the heroic men and women who proclaimed our independence in 1916.

There are lengthy queues to visit Kilmainham Gaol, 1916 celebrations are packed out, and there has been much interest and excitement in schools and homes as we learn more about those who fought for our freedom.

Re-reading the last words, letters and writings of Pearse, Plunkett, Ceannt, Con Colbert and others, I am struck again by their deep and abiding faith, and by their courage. It is no easy matter to go out against a mighty empire, and to fight in the certain knowledge that your life would likely be the price of rebellion.

As the GPO burned around them; as they were taken to be executed, the leaders must have taken comfort that their vision lived on in a Proclamation which declared the right of the people of Ireland to ‘be sovereign and indefeasible’ and which sought to cherish ‘all the children of the nation equally’.

That phrase – cherishing all the children of the nation equally – has a special resonance for Ireland at this time, when, as the people celebrate the Rising, the elites and their media allies redouble their efforts to have the killing of unborn children made legal by pushing for repeal of the 8th amendment.

Of course, we are all well aware that the Proclamation was referring to its citizens in this phrase, but the resonance of those words should be an inspiration to us now, because the 1916 Rising should bring us to cherish all our children, not to abort them.Of course, we are all well aware that the Proclamation was referring to its citizens in this phrase, but the resonance of those words should be an inspiration to us now, because the 1916 Rising should bring us to cherish all our children, not to abort them.

It should particularly inspire us to reject the cruel and callous thinking which marks out children with a disability as being especially targeted for abortion.

The cowardice and inhumanity of abortion campaigners, who take aim against children so helpless that they cannot cry out even as they are killed, is a sharp and striking contrast to the heroism of leaders like Seán Mac Diarmada who, before he was executed, wrote that he died so that the Irish nation might live.

The Rising brought a clarity of thinking that is needed in this country now, as the media allows abortion campaigners to endlessly spin a false narrative of abortion ‘rights’, arguing with weasel words that children’s lives should not be protected.

Behind those weasel words is the truth they wish to hide: that abortion dismembers children who are alive and kicking in the womb, and that these campaigners support this appalling violence through all nine months of pregnancy.

Their vision is clearly not of a nation which cherishes all the children of the nation equally.

But then again, for the most part, this is not their nation, as abortion campaigners in Ireland are sponsored to the hilt by powerful, wealthy international abortion funders – what the Proclamation might have described as an attempt to usurp the sovereign right of the Irish nation by a foreign people and government.

In reading the Proclamation, and the speeches and writings which led to its composition, the sense that the rebels sought a radical departure from a government and culture that was being imposed on the nation is evident. A priority was to improve the conditions and lives of ordinary Irish people, and also to establish an Ireland that was as Pearse said, not free merely but Gaelic as well, not Gaelic merely but free as well.

That radical departure – that desire to be true to our own nature and identity, rather than accept a culture imposed upon us – is a reminder that the Rising helped to gain us the right to determine and to shape our own laws, our culture and our identity.

In that way, the Proclamation and the Rising are a challenge to us to take a bold and radical stand by rejecting the abortion culture which has been accepted by other countries. 

To determine that there is nothing progressive or compassionate about abortion, and to offer the world a better vision; a society where life is valued and protected.We are not expected to take up arms or to give our lives, but we are called, as a nation, to have the courage to cherish all the children of the nation equally, and to see abortion for what it really is, a failure to love and care for our mothers and our babies.

We can rise against the false and cruel narrative that would destroy our children, and stand for a Ireland that offers a better answer than abortion. That would be a fitting celebration of the heroism of 1916.

As Thomas MacDonagh wrote for his baby son:

Now, my son, is life for you,

And I wish you joy of it,- and
What have I to wish you then
But that you be good and free,
And that God to you may give
Grace in stronger days to live? and
And the joy that laughs and sings
Where a foe must be withstood,
Joy of headlong happy chance
Leading on the battle dance.
But I found no enemy,
No man in a world of wrong,
That Christ’s word of charity
Did not render clean and strong-
Who was I to judge my kind,
Blindest groper of the blind?
God to you may give the sight
And the clear, undoubting strength
Wars to knit for single right,
Freedom’s war to knit at length,
And to win through wrath and strife,
To the sequel of my life.
But for you, so small and young,
Born on Saint Cecilia’s Day,
I in more harmonious song
Now for nearer joys should pray-
Simpler joys: the natural growth
Of your childhood and your youth,
Courage, innocence, and truth:
These for you, so small and young,
In your hand and heart and tongue.