The events of Easter 1916 are possibly the defining moment in Irish republican history. But how they have been represented as the anniversary approaches raises many uneasy questions about the country’s sense of itself The scramble over the memory of the dead has been particularly intense in Ireland in the last few years. The country is experiencing a fevered interest in all aspects of the Easter Rising as its centenary approaches in March 2016. We will certainly know more about the events of Easter week by the time the anniversary has passed – but will we know more of Ireland?We know that the Easter Rising has become a vehicle through which Irish society represents and explores itself. The memory of it has, at different times, expressed the range of Ireland’s self-confi