I pen this opinion piece cognisant of the fact that that I speak only for myself. I write as someone who has attended too many funerals of lives that were cut short by violence: family, friends and comrades. I have also watched an inordinate number of funerals of those who were killed by the army that I supported and witnessed the heartbreak, the tears and a grief on a par with any at the funerals that I attended.
As the years have passed, the ghosts rarely visit me unexpectedly now. When they do knock at my door it is frequently as a reaction to media interest in a family’s search for the truth. With the fullness of time my guests no longer induce an angry or anxious response, rather of period a reflection and a private personal act of remembrance.
Never Again Shall a Single Story Be Told As Though It Were The Only One - Berger
Lance Corporal David Jones of the British Army was killed in an encounter with volunteers from the Irish Republican Army on St Patricks day 1978. Recognised as a courageous soldier, he was survived by his mother and father, and sorely missed by his family, friends and comrades. Lance Corporal Jones was buried with full military honours, and he is remembered at Upperlands Remembrance Garden in England.
Volunteer Séamus McIlwaine of the Irish Republican Army was killed in an encounter with soldiers from the British Army on the 26th April 1986. Described by his Chief of Staff as “a brave and intelligent soldier” he was survived by his family and sorely missed by his family, friends and comrades. McIlwaine was buried with full military honours, and he is remembered in a monument erected in Corlat County Monaghan.
The armies for whom these two men fought remember them yearly. November for the British Army and Easter for the Irish Republican Army. Their families may also choose to remember them at these times too or they may not, they may choose to wear the poppy or the lily or they may choose not to. That is their prerogative and there is no one and no organisation who should attempt to dictate how or when these families should remember their loved ones. How they choose to remember is a personal matter for themselves alone, be that privately or be that publicly, and we should all respect that unambiguously.
The British State has chosen to remember its fallen soldiers on or around Armistice Day in November since 1919. The leaders of the devolved UK nations of Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland (sic) have respected this tradition since their establishment. Lance Corporal Jones like all British Soldiers is solemnly remembered across the UK and beyond on Remembrance Sunday.
The Irish State has chosen not to remember those volunteers of the Irish Republican Army who have fallen in the most recent phase of the struggle for freedom, and it should be noted that the President of Sinn Fein has confirmed that she will sustain this policy in the unlikely event that she becomes Taoiseach. Volunteer Séamus McIlwaine of the Irish Republican Army will not have his name read out on the steps of the GPO until the republic for which he fought and died has been established.
None of this is new, and the statement of facts as laid out above, should not suggest that there was an equivalence or that there ever could be an equivalence in what these two young men fought and died for. If we are to heal, however, we must accept that grief, hurt and mourning are universal as a starting point.
What passes for mature and reflective discourse on remembrance focussed this year on the decision by Sinn Fein First Minister to lay a wreath at Belfast City Hall on Remembrance Sunday. Sinn Fein were “behind the eight ball” on this one, damned if they did and damned if they did not. My own view is that the “leadership” chose the path of least resistance. The political furore and the probable collapse of the northern institutions that would have followed an abstentionist position would have been far more damaging to the Sinn Fein “project” than the angry words of a few disgruntled former members. Despite my cynicism about the motivation for Sinn Fein to participate in the British States remembrance of their fallen soldiers, the decision they made, and the public rationale given for taking that decision was, in my view, correct.
The north, Northern Ireland, remains an integral part of the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Northern Ireland. Under the peace accord signed in 1998, it will remain so, until the majority of people in the north decide otherwise. That the success of the Sinn Fein “project” is dependent upon the impossible task of persuading a significant number of Unionists to become Nationalists, is not relevant to this discussion. The laying of a wreath will not change a single mind.
The GFA kicked the critical issues of legacy, remembrance and reconciliation down the road because they were too hot to handle at the time. This should not preclude republicans, especially the families of our fallen comrades, from having the mature dialogue that is necessary to map out a principled position on these subjects.
There are communities in the north who believe that Lance Corporal Jones, died fighting a righteous battle against terrorism. This is unlikely to change even in the unlikely event of constitutional change, but the question must be asked, and we must provide an answer as to how these views will be reconciled in our Republic for all. Will our Republic, erase all history of the Irish men and Irish women who served the British State. Are we not obliged to support and provide leadership for those people in Ireland who wish to commemorate and remember their (British) war dead or will we ban the poppy and Remembrance Sunday?
As Republicans are we advocating the obliteration of official remembrance for people who served in the British forces in much the same way that the Free State parties have purged all mention of the volunteers from our era in the States official history.
In the Republic that I aspire to, we will cherish our British children, as wholeheartedly as our children from Ireland, India, Romania, Somali etc. In developing an understanding that there is a different story, and in accepting that other people hold different beliefs, we do not need to diminish our own beliefs or change our own story.
Therein lies the only criticism that I can see of the public Sinn Fein position on remembrance in 2025. It was not the laying of a wreath at City Hall by the First Minister of a British State, but the statement made simultaneously by comrade Kearney at Edentubber.
Unapologetically asserting “the legitimacy of honouring the dead of recent generations” is the antithesis of unapologetically asserting the legitimacy of Volunteer Séamus McIlwaine of the Irish Republican Army and associated actions in pursuit of the Irish Republic. Without honouring and naming the legitimacy of our phase of the struggle, Sinn Fein have by omission, allowed a parity to be drawn between the actions and validity of the Irish Republican Army and the British Army in Ireland. Perhaps it was not the right time to make clear the distinction, maybe the political repercussions of reaffirming the legitimacy of the Irish Republican Army and their actions were too great for a party walking a tightrope in the north and trying to enter Government in the south.
My personal view is that it was a deliberate omission, and one further step in the process of Sinn Fein distancing itself from the Irish Republican Army. Political power is being pursued at all costs, and I predict that at some time in the near future we will all be informed that overt remembrance of the Volunteers of the Irish Republican Army was tactical and no longer conducive to achieving the strategic objectives that Sinn Fein have set themselves.
The dead will not die completely until they are remembered by no-one - Ildan
⏩Muiris Ó Súilleabháin was a member of the Republican Movement until he retired in 2006 after 20 years of service. Fiche bhliain ag fás.
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