Commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising seemed to cause some unease in political circles in Ireland, not least because Britain and Ireland have buried the hatchet and built a healthy working relationship. The Rising itself still raises issues concerning democracy and the rule of law. On Easter Day 1916 a group calling itself “the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic” issued a proclamation declaring that “the Irish Republic is entitled to and hereby claims the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman”. Unelected and self-appointed, it had no democratic mandate, nor for its intention to take up arms to overthrow British rule. The quandary arising as the commemoration proceeded was that honouring those original signatories and regarding them as martyrs – they were shot by the British – might seem to validate similar claims and intentions in the present day.