I have a letter I'd like to share with you. Whenever I read it, I see a young boy with a watch chain in his hand, standing outside Kilmainham Gaol. The chain is a souvenir from his father. They have just said goodbye. The following morning, the father will be executed. The son (10) will never recover from his death.

The letter has been in my family for 56 years and has never been made public before. It was written by Eamonn Ceannt's son, Ronán, to my rebel grand-aunt, Maire Nic Shiubhlaigh. With the current talk of how we have betrayed the leaders of 1916, it seems appropriate to publish part of it now.

Ronán was writing about the death of his mother, Aine. He was an only child and this second parental loss must have been devastating for him. The self-effacing tone gives the impression of a man who feels that life has passed him by. The following passage sums this up:

"Maire, from time to time, for years past, I have wondered if mamy [sic] was, in a way, disappointed in me for not having shown myself to have been as fine a man as my father was. I never had the courage to ask mamy and she never gave me any special reason for my idea, but, yet, she may, deep down, have felt I was a bit of a failure.

"I'd rather know the answer to that question than be kept in ignorance, so if mamy ever spoke of the matter, will you please tell me what she said, even if it's hard to hear.

"Please remember, I'm not just looking for words of praise and suchlike but just to be told the truth. Whilst I haven't exactly got an 'inferiority complex', at the same time I have no great sense of my own importance and it won't do me any harm to know the truth.

"Mamy loved my father until death parted them and, until she died, she loved and honoured his memory and felt hurt when he appeared to be forgotten by those who owed him, equally with his companions, the freedom and good life which '1916' ushered in. Therefore, it might have seemed to her that my lack of forcefulness etc, as compared with my father's courage was a bit of a "let-down", shall we say. Anyhow, tell me, if you know, but, all the same, keep my ideas to yourself, if you don't mind…"

Those words may just seem like the, justifiable, self-pity of a man who has lost his mother. They are more than that. Ronán, despite his lack of confidence, was a hero in his own right.

Eamonn's last words to him had been "always take care of your mother". Ronán was good to his word. He devoted his life to looking after Aine and never married. He sacrificed his own life for his parents.

I try to imagine what it must feel like to be 10, knowing that your father is about to be shot. I then try to imagine living in the shadow of a colossus you could never hope to emulate. Trauma compounded by self-doubt must be a heavy burden to bear.

On Liveline last Thursday, the relatives of three of the 1916 leaders spoke about our current crisis. On Friday, the Examiner ran a re-write of the Easter Proclamation. The nation, it seemed, wanted to tell the heroes of 1916 that it's sorry for destroying their dream.

I don't buy into this share-the-shame philosophy. Nobody knows how the leaders would have felt about our sovereignty being compromised. Would they have been ashamed? Possibly. Or would they just have seen this as another step in the nation's evolution? Possibly too.

On Vincent Browne, there was talk of how we are going to lose our national identity. How can we lose our identity? We'll always be 'Irish'. Our financial sovereignty is not what defines us. Nationhood is something you carry in your heart, not your wallet. We haven't been re-conquered.

We suffered 900 years of oppression and have only enjoyed 10 years of prosperity. Our default state is struggling. If we 'lose' our sovereignty it will only be for a short while. We're a young nation and will make more mistakes – we're still learning the ropes.

What has not changed is that we are a fundamentally decent people. We've given the world a disproportionate amount of pleasure, wisdom and charity. We need to hold our heads up and remember that we have a lot to be proud of. It's not like we ever started a world war or invaded a neighbouring island, is it?

We are still the same race that produced heroes like Eamonn Ceannt. He died to win us the right to make our own mistakes. I refuse to believe that his sacrifice and his son's suffering were in vain.

We are not that far removed from the 1916 generation. Is it so hard to believe that we will never produce heroes again?

dkenny@tribune.ie