Proclamation of The Irish Republic - Principles of The Proclamation

Principles of The Proclamation

Though the Rising failed in military terms, the principles of the Proclamation to varying degrees influenced the thinking of later generations of Irish politicians. The document consisted of a number of assertions:

• that the Rising's leaders spoke for Ireland (a claim historically made by Irish insurrectionary movements);

• that the Rising marked another wave of attempts to achieve independence through force of arms;

• that the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army were central to the Rising;

• "the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland"

• that the form of government was to be a republic;

• a guarantee of "religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens", the first mention of gender equality, given that Irish women under British law were not allowed to vote;

• a commitment to universal suffrage, a phenomenon limited at the time to only a handful of countries, not including Britain;

• a promise to cherish "all the children of the nation equally"