President’s speech under fire
Or is it a case of the mask slipping and the real person coming through, as epitomised by her famous 'Nazi' remarks last year?
Mrs McAleese is president for all, and her speech soon after the Taoiseach's announcement reinstating the military parade at Easter leaves me worried. Now that the Provos have stopped killing Protestants, is this a case of it being respectable again to commemorate Pearse and his 'red blood sacrifice.'
For if 1916 is now justified, why not go the whole hog and celebrate the murderous campaign from 1970 until it ran out of support and respectability to be rescued perhaps by the peace process.
So let's 'celebrate' Enniskillen, Kingsmills, Le Mon, etc. These, like 1916, did not have political justification. The Rising, after all, was 'sanctioned' retrospectively. I recall the 1916 anniversary in 1966 when we were treated to an uncritical review of all that went on during and after the Rising in a sort of blood-and-guts way on RTÉ and elsewhere. Many people believe this helped fuel the Provisionals' campaign a few short years later. I had thought 'never again,' but now I am not so sure.
Bertie Ahern announced the military parade at his árd fheis without consulting the other parties. This, we were told, was to recapture nationalism from the men of violence. Now we have the President's speech in which she throws in the Somme as a sop, but this like her invitation to a Lambeg drummer to visit the Áras does not wash or hide the main purpose of her speech.
Maybe our President should praise the likes of Parnell who, if he had not been brought down by his own party in collusion with the Catholic Church, might have obtained Home Rule, and a better Ireland. I am disappointed with President McAleese, and I think she should consider her position.
Brian McCaffrey
Newcastle
Clifton Crescent
Galway
