Tubridy’s eulogising of men of 1916 is naive

Anyone possessed of a genuine respect for liberal democracy and endowed with a human heart should be outraged at Ryan Tubridy’s eulogy of 1916.

To convey his perspective it is necessary to quote him. “These guys were poets, they were artists, they were thinkers... They firmly believed in blood sacrifice and the love of their country. And I am in awe of them.”

It is somewhat paradoxical (or is it?) that someone like Mr. Tubridy, born with a silver spoon, apparently fairly well-educated, and informed in relation to other areas of common public interest, should be so enamoured by the deeds of common Fenian murderers, to the extent that he is “in awe” of them.

If one loves a nation, one does not make it bleed, and be responsible for the deaths of 350 civilians, including 40 children — some of them toddlers and babies.

The Military Council of the IRB (who planned the insurrection) cared not a whit for the common people. They placed their positions not in militarily strategic locations, but in heavily populated areas of Dublin, where the poor lived, to maximise civilian deaths in the interest of the propaganda of blood sacrifice.

Pierce Martin

Willowbrook

Grove, Celbridge

Co. Kildare