It’s nice to know you’re not alone. While I’m happy to stand over anything I write – or even to admit when I get something wrong – it’s sort of cheering when you discover that people you respect have come to the same conclusion as you. Over the past week or so two writers I hold in high esteem have done that.
The first – or the first I read – was Prof. Diarmuid Ferriter of UCD. Eamon Gilmore and Enda Kenny were getting all moist in the wake of President HIggins’s visit to Britain and indicating that one of the senior Royals – Prince Charles, maybe? – would be part of the 1916 centenary commemorations in two years’ time. That’s when Prof. Ferriter stepped in and reminded the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste that a committee of what Enda himself described as “authentic historians” had been set up to help plan the centenary events. Yet here were the bold Eamon and Enda on a solo run of their own, virtually putting a ‘Reserved for a Royal’ sign on one of the Easter 2016 seats. ““The State can make this invitation, but what are we there for if we are not going to be asked for advice on big decisions like that?” Ferriter asked. ” The State doesn’t own the legacy of 1916. Nobody does except the people. We are trying to organise public consultations to get people’s views.”
A timely reminder, wouldn’t you say? The government clearly needs regular reminders that Easter 1916 belongs to the people of Ireland, not to any coalition or party. When there’s a hurricane of Windsor mania sweeping the country, it takes guts to stand up and call it for what it is: at best misguided, at worst simply stupid.
The other writer who had a thing or two to say over the last week was my old class-mate Eamonn McCann. As well as being a highly intelligent political observer, McCann is a witty writer, and he brought both qualities to bear on the Irish reaction to President Higgins’s visit to Britain. He then moved on to the possible participation of Prince Charles in the 2016 commemorations.
“It’s said Prince Charles will be the family’s representative. Would it be practical for McNamara’s Band to make a comeback for the occasion? McCarthy on the old bassoon while Doyle the pipes will play? Hennessy Tennessee tootling the flute? They might greet the commander-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment as he waves his way along O’Connell Street with a rousing rendition of See the Conquering Hero Comes . Makes your heart swell just to think on it.”
There’s something in an awful lot of Irish people that makes them long for the presence of a Royal so they can toady in their majestic presence. And it didn’t start a couple of weeks ago. When King George V visited Ireland in 1911, the Cork Examiner described the scene: ‘A cloudless sky, Dublin bay bathed in glorious sunshine, a flag-bedecked fleet lying at anchor in the scarce-rippled waters of the Irish Sea … the quay ablaze with welcoming throngs.’ Thousands of people travelled from all over the country to Dublin so that they could catch a glimpse of this God-anointed figure. But as I reminded Jon Snow on Channel 4 News on the day of Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Dublin, just five years after King George’s visit some desperate men seized the GPO and the rest is history.
Here are the links to Ferriter and McCann:
MCann: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/clearing-away-the-mush-and-gush-of-the-state-visit-1.1764201
there is one thing you can rely on in FG/LAB. they know how to rewrite irish history to suit themselves .
last sunday on the marian finucane show i listened to John bruton rewrite the 1916 AND HOME RULE,according to his version the 1916 rebellion was unnecessary, and a waste of life just like according to him there was no need for the nationalist in the north to fight against unionist terrorism, imposed on the people since 1922 and approved of by his founding fathers of FG as for Gilmore well he is only a mongrel someone with no principles on anything
happy Easter Jude…I’m off radar for a few days…. Taking the waters!!!!!Hope I don’t miss too much……
IN MY DUBLIN ACCENT?
Wid yas all git over yourselves, and put the past behind and look to the future? 1690 and 1916 was such a long time ago.
Let the Queen come, it’s plain to see she loved the Ireland and it’s people,and better still they loved her.
JESUS the big fella himself said live your neighbour, and preached LOVE
This boggles the mind, what little I have stil functioning. I read both pieces and they are spot on. Professor Ferriter hits the nail on the head, when he describes the scene should the royals attend. I see it similarly, the GPO will be walled off from the great unwashed and Kenny and Gilmore will try and hide their embarassment of it all. I feel Ireland may have stocholm syndrome as a nation bowing to their(former) captors at every turn
Jude, I look forward to your column every day. I have written before that I would give anything to hear someone ask Kenny, Gilmore and or Noonan what they thought of the men of 1916, Easy question to, answer. “Mr Kenny, what are your thoughts on james Connolly and say Liam Mellowes? Would you beleive they were heroes?Were they justified in their actions?” It would be very telling.
These men who gave so much(all) for Ireland in the face of unspeakable odds( the city that fought an empire), is their legacy/struggle not cheapened by the made to measure history being forced on the public? It would be as if the US would be expected to apologize or be embarassed by the actions of washington, revere and others. I just can not get my head around it. please ask the question Jude. happy easter to all and hopefully we get closer to a united inclusive country along Tone’s lines. I can dream can’t I
Happy Easter to you too, Paul. I did (more or less) ask Enda in my book ‘Whose Past Is It Anyway’. My memory is that he flanneled around it. You were expecting something else??
The Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment attending, let alone laying a wreath at the Gasrden of Remembrance is the ultimate insult, not only to the 1916 dead, but to the dead of Bloody Sunday.
Well stated . , especially since the SOS is calling for amnesty and an end to inquests of those killed by the state
Read Prof Ferriter’s statement. Notice anything. Not a mention of how North’s nationalists were abandoned to the British and the unionists in 1921. Now that would be a really good reason for caution over attendance of royalty in 2016.But then.Better not to rock the boat in the south.
Good point, Pat. But I think we have to be grateful for at least some opposition to the hazy love-fest..
Prof Ferriter May or may not have reservations about the invite based on the continued British administration of Ireland’s six north eastern counties.
If he did, however, he’d be better keeping that opinion to himself for fear of immediately being dismissed as a ‘bitter’ nationalist. Far better to point out the academic concerns as opposed to the political concerns.
This demonstrates that the british may have pulled their troops out of the free state but only after they guaranteed that their spirit and influence remained intact.
Embarassingly the free state more and more resembles a british satellite state with every day that passes. It would nearly put you off voting for a united ireland! Could us nordies be bothered taking on such pathetic royal sycophancy? Could we afford it? Alas us republicans are thankfully patient folk and we wont mind having to educate our southern brethren on how to be an irish person, when the great day comes. : )
well said
I read Eamonn McCann`s War And An Irish Town many years ago, it was a brilliant read and if I remember correctly his take on the situation was more Republican than his current thoughts. I like him for his good heart in social matters although I disagree with him as far as religion, abortion and so on go. In an ideal Ireland he would be a government minister. Her is of course spot on, as is the professor. There has always been a strain with Irish society that falls for the whole royal spiel, members of my own family have huddled round the tv to watch the royal weddings over the decades. I agree that Nationalists/Republicans have no problem with the British `people`, merely with their rulers.
Norma, I agree with you that it is better to love each other as Christ told us but politics is boring if we all agree on everything! Incidentally I read in the paper a few days ago that members of a KTP Loyalist band laid a wreath at the spot where a young Catholic boy was killed in an accident, nice to see. Ireland needs a fresh start, let`s get our act together and take our rightful place among the nations of the World. I do not want to see the six being `taken over` by the twenty six. I want the Protestants to take their rightful place as co-inhabitants of THEIR country.
“The government clearly needs regular reminders that Easter 1916 belongs to the people of Ireland,not to any coalition or party”.Presumably this applies to Sinn Fein as well as other parties.As with the “peace process” in the North S F at times seems to reckon it has a monopoly of concern for the Easter Rising commemerations.
Should Prince Charles or any member of the British Royal Family be invited to Dublin for remembering the Easter Rising in 1916? No, certainly not. It would be a different story if partition never happened but partition did happen, hundreds of thousands of Catholics/Nationalists were oppressed and discriminated against by the Unionist gerrymandered majority with the help or the blind eye turned by the British Government and Royal Family.
We have to stop pretending that these issues, such as partition, the past (not just the recent past concerning the troubles, the past going back centuries, etc) don’t exist. The “peace process” in my opinion is built on sand, it wont last, its just a sticking plaster to a gapping open wound.
I’ll look forward to the people of the partitioned six counties of Ireland being consulted by this panel of ‘expert historians’.
Jude
While I would be against any royal visit in 2016 as I dont see any reason why there should be a representative of the royal family at the Easter commemorations, a member of the UK Government should be sufficient to represent the British State.
But one thing notable has been Unionist/loyalist reaction to the proposed visit, they are more against (more vocally against anyway) a royal being at the commemorations then their Nationalist/Republican neighbours North or South.
Could it be, that if a royal is present at the commemorations 2016 then that could be seen as the British State giving the armed struggle in Ireland a legitimacy and next time the likes of Jim Allister is asked his views on The Rising, he may choose different words other than “some foreign old grubby rebellion” as thats clearly not how the British head of state views the events.
The British State should be represented as 116 British solider’s lost their lives that week, the youngest victim (not civilian) was Neville Fryday (16) who was killed wearing his Canadian army uniform on Easter Monday 1916.
2016 is a commemoration and should not been seen as a celebration as the 1916 proclamation has yet to be fulfilled.
God isn’t royalty great,how many millions did it cost to host the last one who visited here???.While we the public are been royally screwed by home taxes,water taxes increased costs on every front we can afford to bring more leeches to suck more blood from the poor public.The queen was invited by and for an invited crowd and not the general public,there are many people in this tax ridden country who would dearly love to pay their respects to royalty and foot the enormous bill to the public.I hope any person who reads this missive will understand the irony of the contents.IF enda and company think that they are loved and that we are greatful to them for the misery they have heaped on us,tell them to take a walk in any housing estate in the country[sans bodyguards] and they will soon see the regard the long suffering public will accord them….