Time to grow up and bury the patriot dead

AMERICA, like Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain, has absorbed millions of Irish emigrants, most of whom went on to repay that ‘debt’ by adding immeasurably to the vibrancy of life in their adopted countries.

Very few of them look back in anger at the circumstances or general poverty which made emigration not just an attractive proposition but an historical inevitability.

And just like migrants or colonists everywhere, they had their fair share of conflict or ‘interaction’ with those who had been there ‘ab origine’ (from the beginning, if you like).

So, why is it that so many of us still refuse to recognise even the most benign aspects of colonisation, enrichment and interaction on this island, unless it is predicated on exorcising the ghosts of any part of our heritage which can’t pass the ‘patriot test’ of conformity to some gombeen’s idea of what it means to be Irish.

It’s time to grow up. Time to stop listening to terrorists. And time to question not only the motives and character of spiritually psychotic men like Padraig Pearse, but to question also their proclamation of self-appointed ‘authority’ - especially as it was claimed in the name of the ‘patriot dead.’

Bad enough to be in debt to the living, but it’s a fright to be for ever in hock to the dead. Or to some idea of fools who, in all the reincarnated glory of their own little minds, feel similarly entitled to claim our allegiance.

Richard Dowling

Coote Street

Mountrath

Co Laois