Stamp of disapproval
Indeed, it is proper that appropriate public ceremonies be held to commemorate the many thousands who went away and never returned.
It is for this reason that the Government has set aside a national day of commemoration every year to honour those Irish who died in all wars, including service with the UN.
Every year in November, Irish society endures divisive controversy concerning Armistice Day and the wearing of the poppy. Demands are being made that the Irish state should participate at official level in remembrance day ceremonies. To concede to these demands would be a surrender of sovereign control over state ceremonial to our former colonial overlords.
Last year the Irish Navy participated in the fleet review to commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, and at a bizarre event in Carrigaline, Co Cork, a memorial to Sir Francis Drake, who was responsible for the murder of hundreds of Irish citizens, was unveiled.
As we prepare to mark the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising, it is unacceptable that An Post is conferring a new respectability upon the British army under the guise of honouring those who fell at the Somme.
Is there any country that honours its heroes of liberation on the one hand and simultaneously the army of its colonial oppressor on the other?
Tom Cooper
23 Delaford Lawn
Knocklyon
Dublin 16
