Marcus - Thanks! *More* good info. Fine Gael declared the Republic - I didn't know that. Remarkable. I knew it was in the 1940's but that's all. / Ironic too, is it not, that the civil war pitted deValera against Collins? But that's a whole 'nuther story, I guess...(yeah I saw the movie...was it correct? More or less?).

I gathered somewhere (?) that the Provies took the "Provisional" tag to distinguish themselves from the rather-passive "Official" IRA. But didn't know it related back to the Poblacht na hEireann proclamation at the GPO. Makes sense. Connect to the mythology. (Don't get me wrong: all nations *need* mythologies.)

So here's a mythology hypothetical: if Fine Gael had been in power, would they have re-interred, with honors, Kevin Barry & the others long buried at Mountjoy, as Fianna Fail's Bertie Ahern did? (Those men died in the Tan Wars, didn't they---before the Civil War? Or have I got that wrong?)

"That old phrase about when supping with the Devil and so forth. " -- Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas, eh?