The Story
of Easter Week 1916
RTE 273 CD
The Story
of Easter Week 1916
RTE 273 CD
 Participants accounts of the Easter Rising from RTE Libraries & Archives. |
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We are delighted
to announce our release of this fine recording.
The Story
of Easter Week 1916
RTE 273
THE STORY OF EASTER WEEK 1916 is a CD of historic recordings
from the RTÉ Sound Archive released to commemorate the 90th anniversary
of the Easter Rising. The CD is a day by day chronicle of the events of the
Easter Rising using interviews with, and the reminiscences of, participants
in the week-long rebellion. The CD comes with a four page booklet illustrated
with images from RTÉ's Cashman Collection of photographs.
The Story of Easter
Week 1916 is released on the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1916 and
is part of RTÉ Radio's contribution to the commemorative events taking
place throughout Ireland during April this year. It is officially launched in
the GPO at the end of April 2006 by Cathal Goan, Director-General of RTÉ.
It
is difficult now co imagine, or for some of us, remember exactly how central
the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising was. There were
few voices raised in protest at a celebration of the central myth of at least
one part of this island. There was Fr. Shaw's unpublished
essay and perhaps the Ballyfermot singer Liam Weldon's song, Dark Horse on the
Wind but for the vast majority of people it was a time when history seemed within
touchable distance. Proinsias O Conluain, who was one of the radio producers
involved in making programmes that were broadcast
that week also had the chance to see his father take his place amongst the veterans
of The Rising. Proinisas's father, Bernard Conlon, was one was one of the volunteers
met by Nora Connolly in Coalisland, Co. Tyrone - an episode that is at the beginning
of this CD.
The CD itself is a compendium of eight radio programmes that were broadcast
by RT£ during Easter 1966, beginning on Easter Sunday. The programmes
were called The Week of The Rising and were produced and narrated by Proinsias
Mac Aonghusa.
Mac Anonghusa began his first programme by saying that he made no claim to tell
the whole story of what happened that week - what he wanted to do was to present
some of the memories of those who took part, in their own words. This CD seeks
to do something similar.
The voices on this CD are, for the most part, those of the volunteers who took
part in the righting that week. When it has been at all possible the original
narration is included, however for reasons of simplicity it has been sometimes
necessary to abbreviate what MacAonghusa had said
- this extra narration is voiced by Peter Woods. Again, as in 1966, the CD follows
the events chronologically, on a day by day basis, beginning with
the events of that Monday.
Many of the voices on this CD have not been heard for some time. Beasley, for
instance, was a regular broadcaster on radio during that era -
although he had died in '65 - particularly in Irish language programmes. Nora
Connolly, who became Nora Connolly O'Brien, remained something of
a public figure. Others though, even then, were less well known.
The overwhelming feeling, listening to these tapes over and over again, in an
effort to edit them together, is how young they all were - and how
young some of them still managed to sound 50 years after the event. Regardless
of any arguments about the rights or wrongs of what happened that week the bravery
of these people is beyond doubt. Also beyond doubt is their humanity as they
looked on in awe at what they'd involved themselves in.
Peter Woods, April 2006
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