Police dressed in riot gear remove nationalists blocking Crumlin Road in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast, Northern Ireland, July 12, 2010. Photo: CNS/Cathal McNaughton, Reuters
Catholicism and republicanism have long been uncomfortably intertwined, writes Martina Purdy For the Irish, the great Christian feast of Easter is somehow fused with the great rebellion of 1916. Patrick Pearse, who wrote the Proclamation, placed the Irish Republic under the protection of “the most High God.” How many Irish politicians would use…
