Sent to THE IRISH TIMES AND SPIKED IN 2007.
Madam
Two of Fintan O’Toole’s remarks need comment.
“The unity of Church and State in independent Ireland” is a bit problematical.
The State never celebrated the Christian Holidays recognised in Europe.
The President from 1938 to 1945 was a member of the Church of Ireland, as was one of his successors in pre-Celtic Tiger days.
St.Patrick’s Day 1943 was the 50th anniversary of (the then) President’s co-founding of Conradh na Gaeilge, and the Taoiseach’s now derided remarks of that day were, in part, a tribute to him, and a reflection of the President’s own sentiments
The sentiments will have been held by most civilised people in Ireland and abroad. I doubt they were derided at the time.
“Even in its standard American form, the American St Patrick’s Day parade was never what it used to be.”
Mr O’Toole here quotes the fictional Chicago-Irishman, Mr Dooley, bemoaning the introduction of commercial interests. .Perhaps his literary interests allow Mr O’Toole to rely too much on fancy and too little on Gradgrindian facts?
Is or was Chicago part of a standard form of parade?
The most celebrated Parade, that in Manhattan, is totally free of commercial interests. It is of public sector workers – firemen, policemen, National Guardsmen, Sailors, Marines, Subway workers, hospital workers, teachers, voluntary community and cultural associations and school bands. It is inclusive, and seems to celebrate New York, the USA, St. Patrick and Ireland, in that order.
Yours faithfully
Donal Kennedy
LONDON
A Footnote for today.:-
The choice of Dubhghlas de hIde as first President of Ireland under the 1938 Constitution may have been partly in reparation for a resolution passed in 1915 at the Conradh na Gaelige convention committing it to a political position which caused his resignation as President of the Conradh.
De hIde’s immediate successor as President of Ireland, Sean T O Ceallaigh, proposed that resolution on the instruction of The Irish Republican Brotherhood. Sean T recorded in his memoirs that he felt unhappy about it at the time. But orders were orders for that revolutionary.
Eamon de Valera’s connection with the IRB started a week or two before the 1916 Rising and he never took orders from them. Nor did he ever join or feel bound by GAA rules arising from the IRB’s determination to manipulate all of national life towards revolution. A fine Rugby player who was considered for Munster Provincial cap, he remained a fan of the game all his life.
Poor Fintan O’Toole who lectures on Irish Letters at Princeton, is sheltered from Irish Letters in THE IRISH TIMES by an Editor who spikes them. He blunders from column to column, year after year.
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