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.
Any plans to review Dr Eoin Lenihan's newly published " Vandalising Ireland ?
ReplyDeleteStrong piece as ever from your pen.
ReplyDeleteI think you are bringing a situational logic perspective to this. Of course, from the severely compromised position SF are in, there is a logic to what they are doing. As the republican project was defeated and SF has been dragged from defiance to deference, it seems sensible to the slave to kiss its chains.
The deeper question is why the slave embraces its slavery and defers to its master.
Ireland has far larger and far more contemporary issues to grapple with than who's name is read out loud. Have Unionists ever angst o'er the Lily? I fully support Republicans who wish to honour their dead. I want more than anything for there never to exist a time when Irishmen feel violence is an answer. Still, I remain highly sceptical of nordy Sinn Fein doing anything. There's always a feeling they are being disingenuous though lately I feel it's more incompetence than malevolence.
ReplyDeleteSteve - disingenuousness, malevolence, incompetence - they are all to be found in the mix. The Covid report reveals that much.
DeleteMackers is your issue with British people remembering British war dead or is it with Sinn Fein participating in that remembrance, something they have done since Lord Mayor Maskey in 2002. If it is the former, then there is a chasm that needs bridged and you will be toppling statues and burning books from Canberra to Cork. If you are using the later as a definitive example of Sinn Fein having taken the soup, then I could quote you a hundred far better examples.
ReplyDeleteSinn Fein will do whatever suits Sinn Fein politically; I have covered how I think they have got to this position in multiple articles in TPQ. On this occasion, it is my view, they did the right thing and their public rationale for laying the wreath was thoughtful and respectful to the British people in the north who want to remember their fallen on Armistice Day. That is the burden of leadership particularly in a post conflict society.
Comrade Kearney’s speech at Edentubber was an entirely different thing. This was neither incompetence or malevolence Steve, it was pump priming the base for what is to come.
I have no issue with British people remembering their war dead. I have no issue with Irish people remembering British war dead if that is what they choose to do. I have no issue with Michelle O'Neill remembering British war dead as a private citizen.
DeleteBut this is not what is happening. She is representing a political strain which is showing its deference to British rule rather than its defiance. Sinn Fein are being deferential to the British establishment remembering its war dead while talking of the need to find common ground. Michelle O'Neill hails from Tyrone. No British establishment figure has attended the grave of Martin Hurson. That's not common ground but conceded ground.
If Sinn Fein want to be respectful to British people in the North let them acknowledge which body was responsible for the war crime of Kingsmill or the slaying of Joanne Mathers instead of covering these things up to the present day.
What SF is doing now is posture politics in a structure that determines what the posture is - deference. This is what happens when you have failed to capture the institutions but the institutions have not failed to capture you.
This is not about reconciliation outside of SF reconciling themselves to British dominance and its own domination. While at the same time trying to make itself appear reasonable in a context where the dominant party has set the boundaries for what is reasonable. It is a form of virtue signalling which at the same time attempts to push the DUP onto the low moral ground.
A quality piece by yourself but it suffers from that weakness of trying to displace onto Declan Kearney what is in fact a more institutional culpability.
I am somewhat confused as to what political strain you feel that Michelle represents. Sinn Fein have long since abandoned Republicanism by any definition. But even if the argument was made that she represents republicanism, her role as First Minister supersedes that. As First Minister she has a duty and obligation to represent all the people of the north not just those who voted for her. This is a fundamental principle of representative democracy, and I feel that Michelle, is genuinely trying to reach out. In saying that I would loved to have been a fly on the wall during the internal movement discussions. I agree with you that the decision was probably taken for ulterior motives and primarily taken to wrong foot the DUP (and in this case I would assume UK) reaction to abstention by a what is essentially the UKs Viceroy in NI. But I was very clear that I base my assessment on the noble sentiments that were released to the public, posture politics they may be, but fcuk me we have to start somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIf the attendance by the British establishment at Martin Hurson’s grave brought any comfort to his family or helped in their remembrance of him and if the family wished for that to happen, then we should abide by their wishes.
I cite Declan’s speech at Edentubber not as personal slight; he is a senior representative of the movement. His speech which was cleared centrally, exemplified the institutional duality and inherent contradictions of the path that Sinn Fein now find themselves on. Remembering British war dead in Belfast is one thing, not naming the validity of the Irish Republican Army is quite simply another.
While we both know that SF have jettisoned republicanism she is pretending to be continuing with it. She is not claiming to be a non republican at these events but a republican first minister for all. She is claiming to represent a strain of republicanism that has its roots in the republican struggle including the hunger strikes.
DeleteI would object as vigorously if she decided as First Minister For all to visits Israeli schools just because it is what a majority in society might want. That you think she has to do these type of things is because you are looking at how she has been trapped by the institutions and her room for manoeuvre is institutionally restricted.
I don't attach as much significance to Declan Kearney's comments as you do. What gives them added relevance is the backdrop which is Michelle O'Neill's attendance.
As for Martin Hurson's grave - it is not about the family accepting or rejecting. They are free to do whatever. It is that no offer has been made on this so called common ground.
Nor is this a personal attack on Michelle O'Neill. I bear her no personal animosity and would talk to her warmly I bumped into her (she might not talk to me!!) My observations are purely political. I am describing what she has done, not calling her a cunt.
She most definitely is restricted by her partys participation in Stormont and those institutions are the de jure under which I live. We do not need to rehearse our views on what was agreed in 1998. They are not dissimilar, and yes you are right the issue of remembrance is not common ground, but it is not common ground in any part of Ireland. Why would you expect the British to be so magnanimous in their victory (in the latest phase of our struggle) that would give equivalence to the cause of the vanquished. The Queen of England while laying a wreath at the Irish Garden of Remembrance did not change her States view on their engagement of Ireland and neither did Michelle laying a wreath change the Republican view on the British engagement in Ireland.
ReplyDeleteShe most definitely is not a Republican First Minister and the oath of office to which she attested places a legal duty upon her to serve “all the citizens of Northern Ireland equally” not just the people who voted for her. She may privately believe that she remains a Republican, she may publicly state this as a private citizen at her party’s public events. She may well view herself as the first Republican to become First Minister, but she is not and cannot be a Republican First Minister.
Interesting that you would offer the hand of friendship to the movement that wronged you. You are a displaying the altruistic and benevolent traits that are needed for reconciliation. A step too far for me!!
I don't think we disagree on that much, other than whether the move is right or wrong.
DeleteI don't expect the British to be magnanimous in victory. I would expect that anybody claiming to be a republican would at the very least, require from the Brits - before venerating their war dead - is that it is done on a parity of esteem basis.
I understand your logic about institutional constraints that limit her ability to move in one direction while simultaneously pushing her in another. She bought her ticket and it gets her into the losers' end of the ground to applaud the victory parade for the winner. She is not doing this as an equal, as someone who managed a draw, but as someone who lost the game and now feels compelled to behave deferentially to the victors.
What view people like Michelle O'Neill might hold in private about British engagement in Ireland, the very fact that this is the linear progression from accepting British terms for disengagement makes her private views immaterial. The British victors are continuously squeezing those views out of the public space and into the private sphere.
I can shake hands with just about anybody without buying into their positions. I have worked with SF people down here over the years when the Israelis have attacked Gaza and recently in the presidential election campaign. I will never reconcile myself to the party.
There are two people I would never shake hands with because I believe them to share culpability with Thatcher for the deaths of six hunger strikers. Thatcher was an enemy and we expect no different but the six who died were betrayed by those they felt were friends.