FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Arlington, Virginia, Sunday, April 24, 2016. On Easter Monday, April 24,
1916 at around noon in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, a small band of men and
women marched through the streets and occupied key points in the city,
including the General Post Office (GPO) in the center of town. To the bafflement
of onlookers, a man came out, stood in the portico of the GPO, and proclaimed
that Ireland was now a republic, declaring “the right of the people of Ireland
to the ownership of Ireland.”
Thus began the “Easter Rising”
that signaled the beginning of the end of the British Empire. A century later,
the people of Ireland still await complete fulfillment of the vision of the
men, women, and even children who challenged the might of the greatest empire
the world has ever known.
On this Centenary of the
Rising, Economic Justice Media’s Easter
Witness: From Broken Dream to a New Vision for Ireland presents a concise
overview of the Rising and its aftermath, and traces the century-long series of
events that led a small band of Nationalists to reassert the sovereignty of
every child, woman, and man in a free and independent Irish Republic. Of
special interest to students of the Rising is the chapter consisting of the
first-hand account of Patrick Caldwell of the Irish Volunteers, Kimmage
garrison, who was in the GPO during the Rising, and was later involved in the
War of Independence.
What causes Easter Witness to stand out among the
many excellent, even exceptional works that have appeared in this Centenary
year, and makes the book uniquely relevant for today, however, is the
concluding proposal to establish equal capital ownership opportunity for every
citizen. By securing the basic human rights of life, liberty, and access to
private property for its own people, Ireland can become a global model for the
21st Century and a vision of hope for people everywhere. As Michael
Davitt, founder of the Irish National Land League and associate of League
president Charles Stewart Parnell, declared, “The cause of Ireland is the cause
of humanity.”
A joint project of the
interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) and the Colonel John
Fitzgerald Division Arlington County No. 1 of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Easter Witness is an important
contribution to the literature of the Rising. Working from many formerly
unavailable original source documents, including contemporary newspaper reports
and the “Statements By Witnesses” collected by the Irish Bureau of Military
History, 1913-21, author Michael D. Greaney, CESJ’s Director of Research, has
analyzed the events leading up to the Rising and its aftermath from CESJ’s
“Just Third Way” perspective. This is based on the three principles of economic
justice (participative justice, distributive justice, and social justice), and
the four pillars of an economically just society (limited economic role for the
State, free and open markets, restoration of the rights of private property,
and expanded capital ownership).
Economic Justice Media’s Easter Witness, ISBN 978-0-944997-12-3, cover
price $20.00, is available on-line from Amazon, and by
special order from selected other bookstores. Quantity discounts are available
for schools, churches, and civic groups.
Contact:
Dawn K. Brohawn, Director of Communications
publications@cesj.org
4318 North 31st Street
Arlington, Virginia 22207
Telephone: (703) 243-5155
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