Of all the political commentators, it’s Fintan O’Toole who brings to mind that quotation in the title. It’s not that he quotes Scripture, or that I’m more learned in it than the average sinner. But O’Toole writes on how to establish a “real Republic” and uses the word “Republic” perhaps more than any other commentator.
The Irish electorate established a real Republic in 1918 and repeatedly demonstrated their adherence to it in municipal, county council, and other local elections (which seem to have escaped the attention of historians) in 1920 and in General Elections in 1921.
The response of the British Government was to use lethal force, at the unarmed populace, elected councillors and mayors, trade union activists and Irish language teachers, the burning of houses,their destruction by tanks, the suppression of commerce and wholesale looting of businesses. Where the Republican forces, with all the moral force which a democracy can bestow, used armed force in its defence and were captured, they might be murdered or tortured on the spot, or put to death by hanging or by firing squad.
Fintan O’Toole supports the British Government’s actions, and its right to put Irish soldiers to death for high treason. That is the only rational explanation for his objection to the Christian reburial a few years ago (in accordance with their families’ wishes) of 10 Irish soldiers hanged and buried as criminals by the British in 1920.
I doubt any Good Book could catalogue O’Toole as a Republican or a Democrat.
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