Ireland and the Great War

Abstract

After the flag waving and pageants that the Irish state indulged in to celebrate the centenary of 1913 Lockout, the first in a decade-long series of centenaries, the hundredth anniversary of World War I is upon us. Each centenary is celebrated in isolation, in effect to depoliticise these events and present them as a historical theme park where the great and the good are wheeled out to reflect on the past as if it has no consequences for today.