The 1998 anniversary of 1798 was an extraordinary time in the South East. Pikes were made an hundreds of men and women drilled across Wexford and some in neighbouring counties for months. They descended on O'Connell street for a mass gathering that was I think barely reported by RTE.
I didn't make O'Connell Street; the event I attended was in a tiny hamlet up the mountains in North Kilkenny, where I had been involved in building a memorial garden to 1798. The local oral history in this area was that the men had passed through the parish and been given one horse and a coat, and had taken another horse. It was the only time that any non agricultural event had happened in the area so had never been forgotten.
Seeing the Wexford pikemen and women march down the hill into the village with the whole parish waiting for them was far more emotional than I had expected.
I remember reading that most of those involved in the rising were English speaking, and an Irish speaking Cork militia was involved in putting them down. Things are complex.