Irish Examiner view: Honouring Tom Crean a step towards addressing inequality

An illustration of Ireland’s new marine research vessel, RV Tom Crean, produced by Norwegian architects Skipsteknisk AS

Efforts to purge the public square of anything or anyone that represents values now considered immoral are gathering momentum. 

Scores of Confederate memorials have been removed from America’s public spaces, yet just months ago more than 70m US citizens voted for a candidate who embodies some of the ugly values of the old racist south. 

Britain is also recognising the reality of its exploitative past. Monuments are being removed and schools are renamed if they are linked even in the thinnest ways to slavery. 

If, as it must, that process leads to a reappraisal of British imperialism, then Britain’s understanding of itself will change too.  Not before time, but sadly too late to avert the disaster of Brexit.

That process is under way closer to home too. 

Green Party city councillors, after the publication of the mother and baby homes report, proposed that the Cork city centre Bishop Lucey Park be renamed. Change is on the wind.

That council remembered someone from outside the usual orbit when it honoured Mary Elmes for her Second World War heroics. 

While Elmes was saving Jewish children, a different kind of hero was living a quiet life in Kerry. 

Polar explorer Tom Crean was, at that time, pushed into the shadows because he had been a member of the British navy.

That a new Marine Institute research vessel is to be named in his honour goes some way to addressing that inequity.

Change, albeit slowly, always comes.