The unveiling of a stone monument to deceased IRA members outside of a Tyrone GAA club last week was strongly criticised by unionist politicians and the representative of a victims’ group.
The three republicans - Peter Clancy, Hugh Gerard Coney and Brian Campbell - had all been former players at Clonoe O’Rahilly’s GAC and were all killed by British soldiers in separate incidents during the conflict.
The one-time prominent Ulster Unionist Party figure and now SEFF victims’ spokesperson, Kenny Donaldson, stated his belief that Michelle O’Neill’s presence at the unveiling raises the question about how she could “ever perform the role of first minister [as] Northern Ireland’s symbolic head of state.”
Donaldson went on to claim that “once again sport and politics has become entangled” posing the question as to what message was “being sent out to today’s generation?”
The DUP’s deputy leader, Paula Bradley, claimed the event was “part of a continued attempt to normalise the activities of the IRA,” adding that it was “particularly disappointing that GAA clubs continue to associate themselves with attempts to promote such a warped view of history.”
These comments were not unsurprising but are nonetheless very interesting, for a number of reasons.
Sport and politics in the north of Ireland are annually entangled by the decision of local football authorities to permit clubs from the lowest level to international stage to don poppy-embroidered shirts, poppy armbands and hold a minute’s silence for British forces each November during football matches, when there can be no question as to the message being sent out to the modern generation.
For the avoidance of any doubt, the Royal British Legion’s poppy is worn to remember deceased members of the British armed forces from conflicts ranging from the two world wars to Sudan, Malaya, Dutch East Indies, Aden, Kenya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ireland (as well as other conflicts over the past century.)
Wearing a poppy and attending British remembrance ceremonies are entirely legitimate actions, understandable not least in a society visited by conflict over recent generations.
Yet from the manner in which these British remembrance ceremonies are covered annually in the local media, one could be forgiven for thinking that the military forces being honoured and remembered were completely unrelated to those who committed murder on Bloody Sunday and at Ballymurphy and elsewhere, or who armed and directed loyalist forces to do likewise throughout the conflict in this part of Ireland.
The British forces involved in the conflict here included the RUC and B Specials, whose officers killed seven Catholics in the first six weeks of the Troubles in the summer of 1969 alone.
None of these truths prevented the Irish Football Association from instructing their international footballers to wear poppy armbands during their November 12 fixture against Lithuania last year, a tradition that has developed over recent years. In a similar manner, many GAA clubs continue to pay tribute to republicans from a century ago and from more recent generations.
Paula Bradley’s comments about how these memorials “normalise” the IRA and help promote a “warped” view of history brings us to the nub of the matter.
Michelle O’Neill was only a few months into her post as Sinn Féin vice president when unionist leaders condemned her decision to participate and speak at a republican commemoration in Cappagh in May 2017.
Expressing anger, outrage and fury every time a republican memorial event takes place is about pushing back against the growing acceptance across our society that different narratives and interpretations have always existed, shaped by painful experiences on all sides. Whereas once upon a time only one perspective occupied the public space in Northern Ireland, there is now a place for other outlooks, much to the annoyance of those who preferred it the old way.
We are a bundle of contradictions in this place. The first Irish republicans were northern Protestants and many English by birth became prominent militant republicans up to and including the most recent Troubles. A number of republican leaders previously served time as soldiers in the British army, including James Connolly, while tens of thousands of Irish people served in the British army throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
The British state’s murders of people in Ireland, as well as the state’s active collusion with loyalist forces leading to many more killings, has not led to nationalists calling into question the fitness of a unionist politician to serve in office due to their attendance at commemorations for deceased members of the UDR, RUC or British army more generally. Killings perpetrated by the RUC, including of children, throughout the Troubles has not led to the presence of memorials to RUC members - even when placed in PSNI stations - being reduced to a cynical attempt to normalise a warped view of history.
There is an onus on all sides to carefully work towards a culture of thoughtful remembrance, balancing the right to honour and pay tribute with acknowledging sensitivities of victims in our society. But in the absence of any meaningful attempt from within unionism to recognise the right of their republican neighbours to even have a remembrance culture, we are unlikely to make a significant step forward any time soon.
