Directions to the Easter Rising, please

You know the feeling. You get out of bed on the wrong side, you leave the navigation to the better half, who invariably gets it right but you think that they’re getting it wrong – and even when you realise that they’re actually right, you can’t quite admit it and carry on regardless. It happens to the best of us. Even historians. In the middle of a leisurely walk at Millstreet Country Park (a little pricey, but worth a visit) a few weeks ago I came across this baffling choice: War of Independence or Easter Rising? A lesson in how we are constructing this decade of commemoration, or some terrible mind game to play on an unsuspecting historian? Hmmmm.

– Kevin O’Sullivan