Saw the Mise Eire 2 conference , was excellent.
The term Mise Eire has a speical place in my psyche, in many, but a reducing number of, Irish people.
Mise Eire = I am Ireland - evokes and works on several levels
A symphony composed by Sean o’ Riada in 1966 on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1916 that started the war of independence, eventually freeing Irekad from the british Empire and colonisation
It runs with a documentary called Soairse = Freedom and contains historical images and film from that time, and the rising but it runs for an hour and 25 minutes though.
The centenary was marked by this government made film. This was before the borders fell, Covid was allowed to destroy lives and mass immigration escalated not to mention the current shenanigans about getting shot of our neutrality in order to simp up to the EU Commission. It runs 5 minutes or so, it was a very forward looking proclamation back in 1916 for rights recognised but with obligations called out to summon the Irish people to the flag in the GPO in Dublin.
This is from the centenary parade at the GPO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsTyyfcf_yY
The Mise Eire Festival 2 (2026) which David Hughes led out, which was excellently done.
https://miseeire.ie/
My grandfather, grand-aunt and two granduncles, four second cousins (from both sides of my parents’ families) fought in that war of indendence, they would be sickened by how it has turned out after their risk and efforts. I feel sick for them too, and all of us actually, but maybe that’s just having been educated though the Irish language both (primary and secondary level), taking all my subjects in Irish, and it was a very nationalist schooling. Even my university had the requirement of being sufficiently proficient in Irish as a part of the matriculation process, or admission would have be denied, irrespective of achievements in other subjects.