The Ireland Institute

The Ireland Institute: "On January 27, 2006, President Mary McAleese set the official tone that was to dominate the celebrations over the following months. Her words are worth quoting at some length:
The kind of Ireland the heroes of the Rising aspired to was based on an inclusivity that, famously, would ‘[cherish] all the children of the national equally – oblivious of the differences – which have divided a minority from the majority in the past’. That culture of inclusion is manifestly a strong contemporary impulse, working its way today through relationships with the North, with unionists, with the newcomers to our shores, with our "marginalised", and with our own increasing diversity. For many years, the social agenda of the Rising represented an unrealisable aspiration, until now that is, when our prosperity has created a real opportunity for ending poverty and promoting "true equality of opportunity" for our people and when those idealistic words have started to become a lived reality and a determined ambition"?