Leave Civil War behind, urges Cowen

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has appealed for all sides to leave behind the Civil War recriminations which have dominated Irish politics in the past.

He said the Government believed that, in commemorating the country’s struggle for independence, it was imperative to honour the achievement of all those who took part, despite the subsequent civil war split.

“For too long in this country, there has been a tendency to measure people’s contribution through the partisan prism of whether they had sided with the republic or the Free State,” he said.