Finally, Ireland declared itself free. The 1916 Proclamation of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic, sums up what all people want:

...We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland...We hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State.

Six years later, the Irish Constitution (this is a PDF link) was adopted. But everyone who had signed the 1916 freedom Proclamation was dead. They had all been executed.

Wolfe Tone's dream of a country of United Irishmen was nearer to reality than ever, but a fundamental ingredient was missing then as it is missing now. One version of the oath of United Irishmen states it best:

I will persevere in endeavoring to form a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of all persuasions.

(scroll down about 30% to view the oath).

Or, as the great Irish patriot Wolfe Tone himself put it

To...substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter.

Two hundred years later, the victim of this unjust trial still has it right.

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