1916 commemoration ‘a mistake’

THE oldest survivor of the War of Independence is opposed to this year’s Easter Rebellion commemoration - despite marching in many military parades over the years.

Colonel Seán Clancy, 104, said: “I don’t think there is much point in commemorating it this year. We used to parade on Easter Sunday. The army marched past at the GPO and so on, but that’s a thing of the past now. The army is not strong enough for parades. Bertie Ahern, I think made a mistake by announcing that he’s going to have a army parade next Easter Sunday, the 90th anniversary.”

Speaking with Maurice O’Keeffe in a Radio Kerry interview last night, he claimed: “We’d be only showing our weakness, if we tried to bring the army out. The cream of the army is away on foreign service. It would be only a skeleton section of the army that would appear on a parade.”