In 1902, one of the highlights of the year for many Irish people was the coronation of Edward Vll (left) as King on 9th of August. This might surprise a lot of people in modern Ireland, but the fact was that in 1902 the English monarchy was held in high esteem in many quarters in Ireland. People looked forward to Edward Vll succeeding his mother, Queen Victoria, who had ruled over an Empire on which, it was said, the sun never set (Nationalists explained this by claiming that God could not trust an Englishman in the dark!).

Her death was widely mourned in 1901, but in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising, her memory was revived - and reviled - as the 'Famine Queen' who had allowed over one million of her Irish subjects to starve to death. In 1948, approximately a century after the Great Famine, her statue was removed from the front of Leinster House, the seat of the Irish Government. Later, in 1987, it was shipped to Australia as a gift for that country's Bicentennial Celebrations.

The second high point of 1902 was the signing of the Peace of Vereeniging in South Africa which ended the Boer War. Incidentally, it was an Irish Regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, which had fired the first shots in this war, three years previously, in 1899. In all, over twenty-eight thousand Irishmen served in the British Army against the Boers. This, of course, was perfectly acceptable to most Irish people, as service in the British Army was considered honourable. But, in the aftermath of the 1916 executions, attitudes changed: the Boer War Memorial (right) to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in Dublin's Stephen's Green (which is in the shape of an arch) was insultingly nicknamed 'Traitors' Arch' by Dubliners.

Then, in 1922, after Independence, six Irish regiments in the British Army were unceremoniously disbanded. Most people can name at least one of them, the Connaught Rangers, who are remembered for their mutiny in India in 1920. The others are probably less well known: the Royal Irish Regiment, the South Irish Horse, the Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Their disbandment in 1922 was part of a popular move to erase memories of Ireland's contribution to British military successes.

Apart from joining the armed services, many Irishmen in 1902 sought employment in the Civil Service. In 1902, an Irishman was working flat out on his damning report on the exploitation of the natives in the Congo by European traders.

His name was Roger Casement (left), and the publication of his report some time later made him the most famous name in the British Civil Service. He was honoured by the British Establishment and later knighted. But, as everyone knows, his involvement in the 1916 Rising changed the British Establishment's attitude towards him, and he was executed by hanging in 1916. However, his remains were returned to Ireland in 1965, and he was commemorated by having Baldonnel Aerodrome, the Headquarters of the Irish Air Corps, re-named Casement Aerodrome.

There was a rising tide of prosperity in Ireland in 1902 with the effective ending of the Land War. During the preceding thirty years, the Land League, under the leadership of Michael Davitt (right), had forced landlords to sell their estates to their tenants. The Land League also forced the British Government to pass a series of Land Acts which, among other things, provided loans for the tenants who wished to purchase their holdings.

Loans, of course, are repayable, and in 1902, many people were so confident of their future that they had borrowed money for terms ranging from sixty to eighty years. Most people were quite happy to keep their repayments as a matter of honour. Incidentally, these repayments were known as 'annuities', and were worth about three million pounds per year. They were collected by the Dublin administration and forwarded to the British treasury in London. After 1922, the Free State Government followed suit.

But in 1932, a 1916 veteran, Eamonn deValera (left), took power and refused to hand over the annuities. This set the stage for the 'Economic War', and the matter was eventually resolved in 1938 when deValera handed over ten million pounds in final settlement. This was a fraction of the actual worth of the annuities, most of which were repayable for another thirty years after 1938.

A second result of the ending of the Land War was that evictions became a thing of the past. Immediately, there was a dramatic improvement in relations between the ordinary people and the police, whose duties had required them to attend evictions. As a result, many policemen who were members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (or RIC) felt that it was safe enough to carry out their duties without being armed. But 1916 changed this, and things took a turn for the worse in 1920 when the British Government reinforced the RIC with unemployed ex-soldiers, officially styled 'Temporary Constables'. But their makeshift uniform of military khaki and black police clothing earned them their nickname 'Black and Tans' (right). Their fearsome reputation for brutality ruined the good name of the RIC, which was unceremoniously ' disbanded after Independence in 1922.

These are just some instances of the way public attitudes which were common in Ireland in 1902 changed, and most of these changes can be traced back to the dramatic events of Easter, 1916.