Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Some 90 years on we could offer the mass for everybody who died, not just those who took a particular view. It is long enough behind us now to recognise that civilians were also killed, who did not think they were dying for Ireland at the time, in addition to policemen and British soldiers. A mass for those who died in 1916 would be a small gesture in the direction of that word "inclusiveness", although I suspect we will end up with the exclusion of a worthy priest from this island for a while, but that is a separate issue.

I do not wish to cavil about 1916 but I and other members of the Labour Party are more than a little surprised that the biography of James Connolly on the Taoiseach's website forgets to mention that Connolly founded the Labour Party.