Fr Joseph Mallin, who was 104, died on Easter Sunday in Hong Kong.

His father, Commandant Michael Mallin, was in command of the Irish Citizen Army at St Stephen's Green during Easter week 1916.

Michael was executed by a firing squad for his role in the armed insurrection just a few weeks later. He left four children and a pregnant wife.

Joseph was was two-and-a-half years old.

It is said Michael gave his wife a note prior to his execution saying he hoped his daughter Una would be a nun and Joseph a priest.

Both Una and Joseph followed his wishes.

Joseph became a Jesuit. In 1948 he moved to Hong Kong where he was a missionary.

Commenting on Joseph's death, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mícheál MacDonncha, said "Fr Joseph was awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 2016 and the award was presented to him in Hong Kong by my predecessor Críona Ní Dhálaigh.

"... Joseph cherished the memory of his father and his legacy of commitment to the cause of Irish freedom.

"[His] sincere patriotism was an inspiration and it was a great source of pride that he held the Freedom of the City of Dublin."

Source

• the journal.ie
• The Catholic Universe
• Irish Mirror
• Image: South China Morning Post

The first of July will mark another centennial, that of the Battle of the Somme, one of the bloodiest battles in human history, in which over 3,500 Irish soldiers were killed.

For 100 years, the Rising has occupied center stage in the historical memory making of republican Ireland and the global Irish diaspora. But the role of Irish soldiers in World War I had been all but forgotten - until now.

As a historian of Ireland and the British Empire, I seek to understand not only these events themselves, but also the discrepancies in the ways they have been studied and remembered.

Why has it taken so long to see their interconnections?

The Rising that shook the empire

On April 24, 1916, a band of radical republicans forcibly seized and held key positions in Dublin.

Frustrated by the failure of Britain to implement Home Rule - a form of devolved self-government, not unlike what Scottish "Yes" voters sought in 2014 - as well as by the Irish majority's seeming contentment to remain within the United Kingdom, the rebels sought to awaken the Irish nation and wrest the country from Britain's imperial grasp.

It was an opportune moment, the rebels reasoned. Britain was otherwise engaged - in fighting World War I, or what would become known as the "Great War" because it was quickly becoming the biggest and most horrendous war the world had ever seen.

The rebellion, at least in the immediate term, was a failure.

Inadequately armed with outdated weapons and vastly outnumbered, the rebels were no match for the British Goliath. They held out against the British counterassault for only six days. The leaders were quickly executed. Approximately, 1,800 Irish men and women were detained in prison camps in Britain. The Irish public failed to lend the rebels their support. Continue reading

Sources

• Article by Jessica Harland-Jacobs, Associate Professor, History, University of Florida, in The Conversation.
• Image: The Belfast Telegraph

The city centre will be closed to all vehicles from 6am on Easter Sunday until 8pm that night, as events take place to commemorate the 1916 Easter rising.

A spokeswoman for the archdiocese said Mass will definitely be celebrated at the pro-cathedral on Easter Sunday.

But police have asked that the doors of the Church of Ireland's Christ Church Cathedral be closed on that day.

Easter parade organisers have been criticised for a lack of consultation with churches.

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