The Easter Proclamation 1916

A comparative analysis

Liam de Paor

With an essay by W.J. Mc Cormack

The words of the Proclamation were put together by P.H. Pearse and revised by James Connolly and Thomas MacDonagh. The document is short and exhortatory. Nonetheless, teased out, it unfolds patterns of thought and, perhaps more revealingly, assumptions worth examining. It is an essay in a genre. The genre is exemplified in the American Declaration of Independence, of 1776, which for that reason is also discussed here. Providing the most thorough analysis of the Proclamation, the book’s paragraph-by-paragraph commentary is sympathetic but, at times, sharply critical. Originally published in 1997 (as On the Easter Proclamation and other declarations), this reissue includes a new introduction by W.J. McCormack.

Liam de Paor (1926–98) was an archaeologist, historian and political thinker; he initially trained as an architect at University College Dublin, but later abandoned architecture for archaeology, and became a professor at UCD. His books include Ireland and early Europe: essays and occasional writings on art and culture and Saint Patrick's world: the Christian culture of Ireland's apostolic age (1993; repr. 2014).