Cork concert is seen as part of larger Remembrance Day ceremonies

I FIND it hard to fathom why the Lord Mayor of Cork, Brian Bermingham, should wish to organise a concert in the City Hall in honour of Corkmen who died in British uniform in the First World War. Moreover, the timing (November 8) makes the concert part of a bigger Remembrance Day/Poppy Day ceremony — a blanket commemoration of all British regiments and campaigns.

These include without question the Black-and-Tan campaign and the Anglo-Irish war during which Cork’s City Hall, along with a sizeable chunk of the city, was burned down — by British forces. I can’t help wondering if the irony is lost on Mr Bermingham, one of whose predecessors, Terence McSwiney, died in Brixton prison on hunger strike in 1920 while another, Tomás McCurtain, was shot dead by British forces. Indeed both men are commemorated with busts outside the very same concert venue.

We have witnessed a rash of such commemorative events in recent times, such as the opening of a so-called Peace Memorial Park in Co Mayo by President McAleese. This park aims to commemorate Irish servicemen — “whatever their uniform” — yet notably absent are the names of Irishmen — especially Mayo men — in the old IRA who died trying to obtain self-determination for this country: self-determination that was one of the catch-calls Britain used when recruiting cannon-fodder here but dropped as soon as the First World War was over.

It is also an historical fact that a large number of Irishmen fought in the Nazi uniform or for other fascists such as Franco. Why are these men’s names not on the Mayo memorial? The obvious answer is that to do so would be to imply tacit support for fascism. The uniform is equated with the ideology. Therefore it is an inescapable conclusion that honouring Irishmen who died fighting Britain’s wars — or the USA’s , as in Mayo — is not simply about the commemoration of bravery or foolhardiness but is primarily an honouring of the flawed ideologies that drove those wars. It is about making British military institutions and the wars that Britain fights ‘respectable’ here — despite their history on this island. It is true that many Irishmen found employment in the British army when none was to be had here, but mercenaries are not a new phenomenon and that, literally, describes men who join for economic motives. I know many Cork families have ancestors who fought in the First World War — my own grandfather was among them — but I hope prospective concert-goers will at least consider these facts before deciding to attend. Better still, the lord mayor should call off this fiasco.

Nick Folley

Ardcarrig

Carrigaline

Co Cork