You have to wonder who came up with the idea of an actual State ceremony to commemorate the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), who, in effect, fought against Irish independence. Yes, we should remember and respect these public servants, caught on ‘the wrong side of history’, but to have a Government ceremony for them is too much.
As if the Government didn’t have enough on its plate, with waiting lists and a housing crisis, it has stirred up a hornets’ nest on our still fragile past. The lord mayors of Galway and Cork had said they would boycott the proposed ceremony this month in Dublin Castle and sensitive souls have been claiming on the airwaves that their grandparents would turn in their graves. The last-minute decision to stall the event tells its own story.
The ceremony would not actually commemorate the notorious Black and Tans, brought in to shore up the RIC in 1920. But in the distorted blame game of these things, it was thrown into the mix. Conveniently, it seems, elements in Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin were quick to score points. And besides, if you were going to honour the RIC, then why not the Black and Tans who worked with it? You can see where it was going.
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The State should have stayed away from this over-reaching commemoration business. It just creates trouble. It is also part of an excess of commemoration fever around the War of Independence period of 1916-1923. Worse still, it reflects our modern tendency to inclusion and forced consensus, which results in strange and ahistorical proposals which do the very opposite of the ‘healing’ intended.
There is now a general busybody Government attitude which feels the need to tinker with everything and ‘modernise’ it. Of course, this is still all about supporting the peace process. This is laudable and very understandable, but sometimes the ‘diversity’ angle just goes too far and aggravates the very division it seeks to mend.
It is like the all ‘inclusive’ 1916 wall in Glasnevin Cemetery which lists all the dead of the Easter Rising, including British soldiers. Even I, as a long time non-nationalist, have a problem with this, and yet curiously there was little fuss when it was erected in 2016.
It’s fine to have such a list, like the screen in Collins Barracks, for example, which poignantly shows the ‘other’ Irishmen who died on the Western Front during Easter Week 1916. But this ‘balance’ should not be on a cut-stone memorial in a cemetery which has long been a nationalist shrine, and where there is already enough honouring of 1916.
Yes, we should remember the RIC and DMP and how they fought and suffered in the revolutionary period. But only in an appropriate manner. Otherwise, it could make a mockery of the honouring by the State of its own origins and only offends people and creates controversy.
It is the same with the talk of a joint honouring of the two sides of the subsequent Civil War of 1922 to 1923. This is more tricky, as the combatants were all Irish, as opposed to pro-British forces (although that is a matter of perspective). But it still needs to be approached with real caution. I believe those on the pro-Treaty side should be honoured by the State separately and in a low-key way and dignified way, and that anti-Treaty Republicans could be honoured in different ceremonies.
Such ceremonies could be held by Fianna Fáil, given that party’s origins were in the Civil War. Or, again, it could be done by the State as an acknowledgement, but in a way that doesn’t lump together the two sides who fought bitterly against each other and for completely different ideals.
Indeed, it is ironic that many Fianna Fáil people should be objecting to the Government’s RIC ceremony given that that party honours anti-democratic gunmen who set out to strangle the Free State at its birth.
This is a controversial thing to say, but controversies lurk everywhere here. Sinn Féin would say: who are FF to judge? After all, when it got into power, it hounded Republicans – and executed them in a way that the RIC hadn’t.
The key thing here is ‘low key’. We have had more than enough commemorations of the 1916 and the revolutionary period and the last thing we need is more high- profile events which only stir up old animosities and which crucially give succour to modern violent Republicanism, especially at this sensitive time.
This is what made the Government’s proposal all the more puzzling. There is a new ‘latte nationalism’ in the air, fuelled by Brexit Brit-bashing and reckless talk of a United Ireland and it is time to dial down the rhetoric. The North is as divided as ever. It is certainly not the time for ambitious proposals which might have unleashed only the ghouls of the past.
Interestingly, we have been here before. In 1987, then Fine Gael Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald included the honouring of our World War I tradition in a ceremony at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance.
There was fury and, thereafter, the annual memorial ceremony was moved to the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham. Garret was seen as being out of touch – and lost power later in 1987. Could Leo be the new Garret?
Source: Read Full Article
Home » Analysis & Comment » Eamon Delaney: 'Varadkar needs to wake up and smell the coffee over dangerous 'latte nationalism''
Eamon Delaney: 'Varadkar needs to wake up and smell the coffee over dangerous 'latte nationalism''
You have to wonder who came up with the idea of an actual State ceremony to commemorate the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), who, in effect, fought against Irish independence. Yes, we should remember and respect these public servants, caught on ‘the wrong side of history’, but to have a Government ceremony for them is too much.
As if the Government didn’t have enough on its plate, with waiting lists and a housing crisis, it has stirred up a hornets’ nest on our still fragile past. The lord mayors of Galway and Cork had said they would boycott the proposed ceremony this month in Dublin Castle and sensitive souls have been claiming on the airwaves that their grandparents would turn in their graves. The last-minute decision to stall the event tells its own story.
The ceremony would not actually commemorate the notorious Black and Tans, brought in to shore up the RIC in 1920. But in the distorted blame game of these things, it was thrown into the mix. Conveniently, it seems, elements in Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin were quick to score points. And besides, if you were going to honour the RIC, then why not the Black and Tans who worked with it? You can see where it was going.
Please log in or register with Independent.ie for free access to this article.
Log In
New to Independent.ie? Create an account
The State should have stayed away from this over-reaching commemoration business. It just creates trouble. It is also part of an excess of commemoration fever around the War of Independence period of 1916-1923. Worse still, it reflects our modern tendency to inclusion and forced consensus, which results in strange and ahistorical proposals which do the very opposite of the ‘healing’ intended.
There is now a general busybody Government attitude which feels the need to tinker with everything and ‘modernise’ it. Of course, this is still all about supporting the peace process. This is laudable and very understandable, but sometimes the ‘diversity’ angle just goes too far and aggravates the very division it seeks to mend.
It is like the all ‘inclusive’ 1916 wall in Glasnevin Cemetery which lists all the dead of the Easter Rising, including British soldiers. Even I, as a long time non-nationalist, have a problem with this, and yet curiously there was little fuss when it was erected in 2016.
It’s fine to have such a list, like the screen in Collins Barracks, for example, which poignantly shows the ‘other’ Irishmen who died on the Western Front during Easter Week 1916. But this ‘balance’ should not be on a cut-stone memorial in a cemetery which has long been a nationalist shrine, and where there is already enough honouring of 1916.
Yes, we should remember the RIC and DMP and how they fought and suffered in the revolutionary period. But only in an appropriate manner. Otherwise, it could make a mockery of the honouring by the State of its own origins and only offends people and creates controversy.
It is the same with the talk of a joint honouring of the two sides of the subsequent Civil War of 1922 to 1923. This is more tricky, as the combatants were all Irish, as opposed to pro-British forces (although that is a matter of perspective). But it still needs to be approached with real caution. I believe those on the pro-Treaty side should be honoured by the State separately and in a low-key way and dignified way, and that anti-Treaty Republicans could be honoured in different ceremonies.
Such ceremonies could be held by Fianna Fáil, given that party’s origins were in the Civil War. Or, again, it could be done by the State as an acknowledgement, but in a way that doesn’t lump together the two sides who fought bitterly against each other and for completely different ideals.
Indeed, it is ironic that many Fianna Fáil people should be objecting to the Government’s RIC ceremony given that that party honours anti-democratic gunmen who set out to strangle the Free State at its birth.
This is a controversial thing to say, but controversies lurk everywhere here. Sinn Féin would say: who are FF to judge? After all, when it got into power, it hounded Republicans – and executed them in a way that the RIC hadn’t.
The key thing here is ‘low key’. We have had more than enough commemorations of the 1916 and the revolutionary period and the last thing we need is more high- profile events which only stir up old animosities and which crucially give succour to modern violent Republicanism, especially at this sensitive time.
This is what made the Government’s proposal all the more puzzling. There is a new ‘latte nationalism’ in the air, fuelled by Brexit Brit-bashing and reckless talk of a United Ireland and it is time to dial down the rhetoric. The North is as divided as ever. It is certainly not the time for ambitious proposals which might have unleashed only the ghouls of the past.
Interestingly, we have been here before. In 1987, then Fine Gael Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald included the honouring of our World War I tradition in a ceremony at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance.
There was fury and, thereafter, the annual memorial ceremony was moved to the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham. Garret was seen as being out of touch – and lost power later in 1987. Could Leo be the new Garret?
Source: Read Full Article