how do the political parties lay claim to the 1916 legacy?

Progressive Democrats

Despite being the newest party in the Dáil, having only been founded in 1985, the Progressive Democrats have a link to 1916. Two of the party’s founders, Des O’Malley and Mary Harney, came from the Fianna Fáil tradition while the third, Michael McDowell, came from Fine Gael. O’Malley and Harney left Fianna Fáil because they believed Charles Haughey had rejected the party’s founding principles. In his famous “I stand by the republic speech,” O’Malley stated his adherence to the non sectarian ethos that inspired the founders of independent Ireland.

O’Malley consistently opposed Sinn Féin and the IRA as having betrayed true republicanism through their involvement in the campaign of sectarian violence. Harney left Fiana Fáil because the party voted against the Anglo-Irish agreement negotiated by Garret FitzGerald and Margaret Thatcher. She argued at the time that the agreement reflected the true spirit of republicanism. McDowell, the intellectual engine of the PDs, has a direct family connection with 1916 as he is the grandson of Eoin MacNeill, the founder of the Irish Volunteers. MacNeill’s authority was flouted by the leaders of the Rising who went ahead with the operation in defiance of his countermanding order. He believed that a Rising was only justified if it had a clear chance of military success and he did not share the blood sacrifice ideology of some of the signatories of the Proclamation. After the Rising MacNeill was arrested by the authorities, put on trial and was sentenced to penal servitude for life. He was sent to prison along with those who had taken part in the Rising. In jail he resumed good terms with most of his former comrades from the Irish Volunteers, including Michael Collins. He was elected to the First Dail in 1918 and took a prominent part in the Independence movement. He was a member of the first Free State Government.