Incentivise the study of history - Forgetting will lead us to destruction

THE last generation of Irish people taught to believe that the vast majority of the world’s ills, the myriad injustices afflicting humanity, could be — indeed, should be — laid at the feet of Perfidious Albion are in the autumn of their life.

Some live in retirement settings and even if their memories allow they probably don’t sing the old, belligerent, republican ballads teachers shared with them as an authentic version of their history, with the same zest they once did.

Kevin Barry and Sean South may not be as celebrated as they once were. Certainties once unquestionable are seen as more nuanced, more open to scrutiny. A wider perspective is applied.