Today in History: April 24

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.—”Poblacht na hÉireann”

The Easter Rising began 100 years ago today and lasted five days.

Seven men—Thomas J. Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, P. H. Pearse, Éamonn Ceannt, James Connolly, and Joseph Plunkett—printed and signed a document headed “Poblacht na hÉireann” (Republic of Ireland), which declared Ireland’s independence from the United Kingdom. Although the independence movement possessed a force of more than 1000 insurgents, the far larger British Army suppressed the uprising after a week. After the uprising was put down, the seven signatories were court-martialed and executed, but the movement toward a free and independent Republic of Ireland was born. It took years to achieve.
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984 Days in Prison: #FreeShawkan

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

For the fourth time, the trial for Mahmoud Abu Zeid, the photojournalist known as “Shawkan,” was postponed today, April 23, by an Egyptian court, this time until May 10. He will remain in detention between now and then, and he will pass a grim milestone in two weeks: 1000 days in prison.

[Update: According to one source, a journalist named Mada Masr, “The court delayed the hearing because one of Shawkan’s co-defendants, who is in police custody, was not present in for the trial, said Karim Abdel Rady, a lawyer with the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, who is representing Shawkan.”] The source reports that the co-defendant was not present because the police were detaining the person.

The photo above, credited to Mohamed Meteab, is from the court proceeding today: Shawkan is the smiling face on the left. Other photos from today’s hearing show him smiling the toothy grin that has become familiar to human rights supporters around the world, and other photos show the gritty reality, even when appended to a message of thanks from Shawkan himself, like this one, also from today (Below the fold):
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Today in History: April 23

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war’s quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
‘Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room,
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
    So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
    You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.—William Shakespeare, Sonnet 55

Because he was baptized on April 26, and because of assumptions made by scholars about this fact in later centuries, and because he definitely died on April 23, a mere 52 years later, William Shakespeare’s birthday and his death day are celebrated today. He was possibly born 452 years ago today, and he died 400 years ago on this date.
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