SNIPPET: James CONNOLLY was born in 1870 near Clones, Co. Monaghan, and was one of the signatories of the Declaration of the Republic, 1916. Others included Padraig PEARSE of Dublin, Sean MacDIARMADA, of Glenfarne, Co. Leitrim, Eamonn CEANNT of Co. Galway, Joseph PLUNKETT of Dublin, Thomas MacDONAGH of Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary, and Thomas J. CLARKE who had a tobacconist shop in Dublin. Although far more complex than this - In Ireland (and not everyone fell neatly in this scheme) there were lines of division. Gains had been made in tenant protection, fixing rents fairly, a guarantee against eviction, and so it was that peasant proprietorship set the tone for modern Irish rural society. And the other two subversive forces of significance, unionism and nationalism, crystallized in the form of Catholic, Gaelic nationalism and Protestant, non-Gaelic unionism. Unionist opposition to Home Rule was fierce as reflected in the Solemn League and Covenant in 1912: "Being convinced in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire (we) do hereby pledge ourselves...to stand by one another in defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom and in using all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament." The following year the Ulster Volunteer Force was established. Around the same time the Irish Volunteers were established. There was a nationalist counter-gesture with emphasis on Gaelic culture, development of native Irish sports, cultural attempts to fight against the Anglicisation of Ireland and a political struggle to free Ireland from English control. The Easter 1916 rebellion had little realistic chance of success, and it was crushed by the authorities within a week, but the proclamation which Padraic Pearse read out in Dublin on the opening day of the revolt became of the sacred texts of the Irish republican tradition: "We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people...The Irish republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares it resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past...In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called." Signed on behalf of the provisional government, Thomas J. Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, P. H. Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett. These men were executed at Kilmainham prison and buried at Arbour Hill Military Prison were considered martyrs for their cause. This event was one in a combination of factors that later united to stimulate nationalist Ireland into a new stage of activity - i.e., Britain's involvement in the First World War seemed to offer an opportunity of striking at a distracted England, and the threatened imposition of conscription on Ireland into the war which served powerfully to alienate many people from the authorities. Until more recently, solutions have remained elusive in the bloody Northern Irish conflict. The existence of competing, self-sustaining forces in Ireland has in many instances culminated in great conflict. Waves of invasion, patterns of settlement, religious and ethnic identity and difference, and the color and complexity of overlapping cultures have rendered Ireland's history both compelling and painful. But it is also true that they have helped to produce an island rich in appeal for many other people, as well, and welcome progress in the road to peace and prosperity has been made in recent years.