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Sat 04 Apr 2007Rising to the challengeHistory Last year's commemoration of events in 1916 has inspired a thought-provoking essay collection'Was that the conference where President McAleese made that speech?" I was asked when reading this book. Indeed it was. That speech was made to introduce the conference on 1916 organised by the history department in UCC in January 2006 under the title, The Long Revolution: The Rising in Context. The President's opening address, '1916: A View From 2006', was lambasted from certain quarters, resulting in some journalistic missiles being lobbed in her direction. Kevin Myers, late of this parish, described it as "triumphalist, imbecilic and fatuous".