Monday, February 06, 2006
Monday Madness - Revisionist Rubbish
Well I've spoken before on United Irelander about how 2006 will be a big year for Ireland in terms of looking back on the past and it seems as far as the Easter Rising is concerned, the revisionists are preparing for their inevitable onslaught on the event!Slugger O'Toole for example highlighted these comments from perennial joker Lord Lard on the Rising, but I'd like to highlight this column from The Times by John Burns which is yet another trendy anti-Rising article. Burns comments on the upcoming Parade...
"The number of spectators could be a fraction of the St Patrick’s Day crowd, however. There is bound to be a lingering uneasiness about celebrating the rising, and the government will need to warm up the public beforehand," Burns writes.
I think that's nonsense. I hereby predict that this year's parade celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Rising will have a phenomenal turnout! Sadly people like Burns are intent on pissing all over Ireland's history. In Burns' case, he decides to bash President McAleese and he gives a platform to Irish
"Norris, an "unrepentant revisionist", noted that McAleese spoke of "that small band inhabiting a sea of death . . . yet their deaths rise far above the clamour, their voices insistent still".
"I respect the office of president, and the way her husband has sought to build bridges in the north. I hope this glorification of militarism and blood sacrifice won’t put in jeopardy the work he has done," said Norris.
Silly comments from Norris. If one accuses the President of glorifying militarism and blood sacrifice then one must also make the same accusation towards those who remember the Battle of the Sommes. Remember, those who signed up to fight in the First World War were very enthusiastic about 'dying for King and country'.
"I would be very critical of 1916. I think the rising was a mistake. It was a wrong turning. They were terribly lucky that things turned out the way they did."
I find it extraordinary that an Irishman could label the 1916 Rising a 'mistake'. It is what the Irish Republic is built upon. Garret Fitzgerald articulated that well here on the BBC. Fitzgerald writes:
"The Irish decision to choose the path of independence has thus been fully justified by the events of the past eighty years. But if Southern Ireland had failed to leave the United Kingdom at a time when transfer payment from Britain to Ireland were relatively small, later dissatisfaction with the relationship would have come up against the huge problem of the high cost of terminating it. 1916 saved Ireland from that dilemma."
The former Taoiseach continued:
"For it is Ireland’s independence that has enabled it to determine its own taxation system; to educate a far higher proportion of its young people to a much higher level than in Britain; and to develop a constructive social partnership between government, business and trade unions - something that never happened in the larger island.
"These are the factors that have enabled Ireland to move out of both absolute and relative poverty, to a level of GNP per head already slightly higher than that of Britain-and with a strong likelihood of becoming within the next decade one of the richest countries in Europe in terms of per capita output and incomes."
Perhaps David Norris should take that under consideration before he opens his mouth? Norris however goes on:
"We got an Irish Free State, but there was going to be one anyway. They got kudos for that. And of course the Brits were bloody fools."
Shocking knowledge of history and politics from Norris. There was NEVER going to be a Free State; there would have been two Home Rule governments. This would have involved Ireland remaining WITHIN the United Kingdom. The Irish Free State made Ireland a sovereign independent entity which would not have been the case with Home Rule.
Norris concludes:
"There is a case that the IRA are the inheritors, or among the inheritors, of this tradition. Everyone tries to deny that. The government feels it needs to recapture 1916 for electoral purposes. It would be better to investigate it."
There is certainly NOT a case that the Provisional IRA are the inheritors of 1916. None whatsoever. There is no case in my view to argue that the Provos are the inheritors of the War of Independence, let alone the Easter Rising!
All in all it's a trashy article from John Burns with typical trashy comments from revisionist simpletons.
It would appear that the Irish public will face many battles, insults and attempts to rewrite history as we endeavour to pay tribute to the men and women responsible for the Ireland of today.
No matter. We will still celebrate the Easter Rising, perhaps the most significant moment in Irish history, and we shall celebrate it with all the pomp and pageantry that it deserves!
As for the Kevin Myers revisionist ilk who seem determined to rain on our parade and bash Irish history, to steal a quote from our American friends: 'If you don't love it...then leave it!'
# posted by United Irelander @ 12:04 AM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
