An Tánaiste is treading a traditional route, not the one carved out by”…those brave men who fought and died, that Róisín live again with pride…” but rather, the one taken by Perkin Warbeck, claiming to be the Duke of York when he arrived in Cork in 1491. Tradition has it the support given to Warbeck earned Cork the title of the Rebel County.
Seamus Deane in Small World Ireland 1798 – 2018 poses questions about our violent past.
“…violence in the furtherance of political ends come most loudly from those who have a well-established notoriety for that practice themselves – the British and the unionists. They are not opposed to violence as such; they are opposed to violence directed against them…”
On 7 May 1966, the UVF petrol bombed a Catholic-owned public house on the Shankill Road. Matilda Gould, a Protestant widow aged 77 lost her life when the fire spread to her home.
On 22 June 1975, loyalists attempted to destroy a train bound for Bodenstown. Christy Phelan discovered the group planting the bomb and met a violent death associated with stab wounds from a 6-inch knife. The IRA was blamed for the explosion. Initially it was claimed Christy Phelan died as a result of the explosion. Later a family member was actually blamed for the death of his father. Joe Tiernan addressed issues associated with the murder of Christy Phelan in his book,
The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and the Murder Triangle.
A focus on our violent past avoids the need to examine the role played by ‘faceless men‘ in creating circumstances that led to violent confrontations. Derry has a significant link with Cork, the birthplace of William Coppin in 1805. Coppin established a shipyard, a foundry and one of the first ships with a screw propeller in 1843. What led to the disappearance of the shipyard, the foundry and three rail lines from Derry? It was possible to travel from Derry to Dublin by rail into the late 1950s. In 2023 it is impossible to get a direct train link from Derry to Dublin.
Derry City and Strabane Council engaged in a public consultation on constitutional change which ended on 5 April 2023.
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