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Just been watching the "1916 commemeration" on RTE and cant help but feel disgusted at the gall of Bertie Aherne and the Irish Army at laying a wreath in the yard at kilmainham jail in honour of the executed leaders of '16..The same yard in which the Irish army executed anti-treaty freedom fighter's Peter Cassidy,James Fisher, John Gaffney and Richard Twohig all of whom also fought in 1916.the double standards are appaling
I think you're bing too harsh there Block G. Armies just do what their political/military masters tell them to do. That was the case in 1921/2, and it's the case now.
Fianna Fail was the political movement that was created to carry on the fight of the non-treaty side of the Civil War, so I see no irony at all in that party laying a wreath in their memory. Even if FG laid a wreath now, I would only find that mildly ironic. Should the Spanish army not be involved in anything that commemorates Spain's monarchy, just because of how they were used under Franco ? Ditto the Italian army and Mussolini. Should the German army be prevented from doing anything that honours freedom and democracy, given how they were used under Hitler ?
Time's change - not everyone needs to be a hostage of the past....
the irony i felt was that had the four men mentioned above would have been honoured today had they died in 1916 and not 1922 and the fact that it was the same army honouring the very same men who had they survived 1916 probably would have been executed by the free staters in 1922
Robert Fisk's article in the (UK) Independent on this....
http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle12756.htm
Sorry Block G - but this doesn't make a lot of sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by Block G Raptor
Times change dude - the Easter rising was 90 years ago, the War of Independnece near enough the same....