leader James Connolly and the pioneering feminist Constance Markievicz did not struggle only to replace English rulers with Irish ones but to replace landgrabbing by the rich with fair land redistribution to the poor , cramped slums with room to move , painful hunger with full stomachs , squalor with dignity , exploitation with decent work , corporate impunity with workers ’ rights , inequality with equality , hopelessness with hope , shame with self-worth . They saw that the struggles for political democracy , economic justice and cultural self-confidence were interconnected and inseparable . Across the world , those lessons could not be more necessary today . It ’ s a privilege that my job as Campaigns and Policy Director with ActionAid enables me to support communities campaigning against injustice , and working for more equal societies .
So how come I came to be English and a Pearse ? Padraig ’ s youngest sister Mary-Kate ( by birth his cousin , taken into the family when she was orphaned ), was the only one of their household to have children . She is my great-grandmother . On a holiday at the Royal Hotel in Galway , Mary-Kate complained to the management about another guest who left the communal bathroom in a mess . The management made the errant guest
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apologise to her in person . He was Sydney Shovelton . He was English . She liked him . She married him .
She passed onto her Irish-English children the stories of her adored brother , and her pride in the values he lived by . And each generation passed on the same . Along with so many people across Ireland and across the world , I still feel moved by his call to dream for a more just world and to work to make that dream a reality :
“ The wise have pitied the fool that hath striven to give a life . To dream that was dreamed in the heart , and that only the heart could hold . Oh wise men , riddle me this : What if the dream come true ? ”
Ben Phillips is Padraig Pearse ’ s great grand-nephew . He lives in Nairobi where he is is International Director of Policy , Research , Advocacy and Campaigns for ActionAid , an NGO working to tackle inequality and injustice .
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