RONAN FANNING – 07 April 2013

ON THE eve of the introduction of the third Home Rule Bill of 1912, the Irish Chief Secretary, Augustine Birrell, tried to explain the depth of Ulster Unionist opposition to his cabinet colleagues.

Well Eibhlin Byrne, Fianna Fáil, Lord Mayor of Dublin from 2009 – 10 thinks so. So do the Irish political establishment and the majority of people in the fair land we call the Republic. At the Freedom Day reception on 27 April 2010 in the South African ambassador’s residence in Killiney, Eibhlin compared the fight for “freedom’ by black South Africans to the Irish rebellion in 1916. But were we to take a test on freedoms enjoyed by the Irish people and South Africa blacks before self-government, Ireland would win hands down. Why?

Ireland

Free press and freedom of assembly – Yes
Control of local government – Yes
Devolved government on statute books - Yes
Free elementary education - Yes
Land in hands of natives - Yes
Universities for natives - Yes

South Africa

Free press and freedom of assembly - No
Control of local government - No
Devolved government on statute books - No
Free elementary education - No
Land in hands of natives - No
Universities for natives - No

So why 1916? Beats me. Black South Africans had suffered centuries of brutal exploitation (if you doubt me, read Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart, Malan being an establishment Boer), the Irish, well, were taught their experiences were even worser and worser but they weren’t remotely on the same scale. Oh yes, the famine when potatoes rotted year after year and if you are to believe Tim Pat Coogan and Irish-American historians, you would weep at the way THE ENGLISH set out to wipe out the paddies. Liam Kennedy, the Irish historian of Queen’s University, Belfast, tells it as it was, measure after measure were taken to relieve the natural disaster, while Irish Catholic merchants exported grain year after year and grew rich.

What were the consequences of 1916?
• Partition. The division of Ireland was probably avoidable had peaceful constitutional methods been followed, as argued by John Bruton.
• The loss of about 6,000 lives in 1916 plus the civil war that followed.
• The formation of a suffocating and inward looking Ireland.
• A major exodus of the Protestant community,
• No welfare state with free health and secondary/university education as enjoyed by our troublesome northern neighbours
• Huge amounts of money wasted in promoting a language no one wanted to speak.

 
The historian Tom Garvin summed up what motivated Sinn Fein and the IRA to fight British soldiers, Irish policemen and their own civilians to achieve separation.

 
Sinn Fein’s aims were in a vital sense transformative. The changes it envisaged went beyond the transfer of state power from British to Irish hands, to the vague but potent promise of a radically altered way of life, spiritual regeneration and the rediscovery of the nation’s soul’

 
This is the talk of fascism. What on earth is ‘the nation’s soul’? The nonsense of a pure people? Well, we know what happened. I, as a post nationalist, will be out of the country in 2016 when a man of vicious violence, Michael Collins, will be celebrated by our Taoiseach in 1916 festivities dedicated to blood sacrifice, blasphemy and immorality. I will raise a toast to one John Redmond, a constitutional patriot, whose portrait does not hang in Leinster House.

Sir, – I never thought I would be writing to The Irish Times defending Archbishop Sean Brady – but really Tom Cooper (March 25th) should get a life.

If Archbishop Brady was invited to attend a Commonwealth Day event, so be it – so was I. Those members of his flock who profess, accept and live a life as part of their Britishness also have rights.

At the Commonwealth Day event I attended, I engaged in a constructive discussion, said I was opposed to rejoining the Commonwealth but very much in favour of good relations. People such as Mr Cooper and his narrow, outdated, views would force me to reconsider my views – in the other direction. – Yours, etc,

Cllr DERMOT LACEY,

Beech Hill Drive,

Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

> Read in Irish Times

Dé hAoine, 22 Márta 2013

Foinse Lá an Chomhlathais Rinneadh Lá an Chomhlathais a cheiliúradh san Acadamh Ríoga Éireannach, Sráid Dawson, Baile Átha Cliath ar an Luan, an 11 Márta, le teacht le chéile a bhí eagraithe ag an ngrúpa, Reform Group. Bhí Mary Kenny, údar, colúnaí agus tuairisceoir clúiteach mar aoi ag an ócáid. Thug sí caint eolasach chuimsitheach agus leag sí amach na buntáistí a bhaineann le ballraíocht an Chomhlathais. Léirigh sí ar dtús an caidreamh idir an Rí Seoirse a cúig agus an t-ambasadóir Éireannach John Dulanty ag am na scoilte i 1949, cúis aiféala ar gach taobh a bhí i gceist go mór mhór idir na hAontachtaithe ó thuaidh. As sin amach, cuireadh leis an teannas idir na dreamanna seicteacha éagsúla ar an oileán.

> Read more

By REBECCA BLACK
Published on 15/03/2013 10:34 – Newsletter

ULSTER Unionist peer Lord Empey has called on the Republic to rejoin the Commonwealth.

In Dublin, the Reform Group held a Commonwealth Day reception in the Royal Irish Academy which was addressed by Mary Kenny and Bruce Arnold … the talks to appear on the Reform website at www.reform.org. The event was well attended. The Ambassador of Nigeria, His Excellency Felix Pwol, and representatives from the South African and Kenyan embassies were present. The theme of Commonwealth Day this year is ‛Opportunity through Enterprise – Unlocking potential with innovation and excellence’. This is apt in an Irish context, though unfortunately we cannot avail of the programmes as we are no longer in the Commonwealth.

> View video on YouTube

> Read Bruce Arnold’s Article in the Irish Independent

The proceedings are from 12.30 pm to 2.00 pm; admission €10.00 and a light buffet and refreshments will be served. All welcome.

THE key question always is: do you walk the walk? David McWilliams’ excellent column on Wednesday reveals where we are walking: on the airport concourses to cross-channel departure gates, with 10 million people flying annually between Ireland and Britain. The number of travellers a year from Germany? Just 400,000: 4pc.

> Read more

The small cafe outside Bank station, deep in the heart of London’s financial district, is jammed. Behind me – suited and booted – are four voices, deepest Cork, young lads in their late 20s. These are the newest wave of Irish people whom London has welcomed and provided with a living, when earning a living back home is not possible. In recent surveys, one in four Londoners claimed to have Irish blood, and there are more British people with one Irish grandparent than there are Irish people with grandparents.

> Read more