Studying history in school is a start to help us to develop a historical sensibility that leads to an appreciation of the cultural achievements and accomplishments of previous generations, and to derive pleasure and enjoyment from learning about the past. That was not the case for those young people of the 1950s/60s in the north of Ireland who wished to know more about their Irish history through the school curriculum system as opposed to learning about it on some street corner. In the north the history syllabus had three strands – British, Modern European and British social and economics. The former had nothing about Irish history save for a single reference to the Battle of the Boyne.
National sovereignty still remains the greatest issue today. The perversion and distortion of Irish affairs by partition politics may complicate it, but it also accentuates it. Upholding British rule and blatant intransigence by the Ulster British is still central and continues to fan the flames of sectarian animosity.
In this the 225th anniversary year of the 1798 rebellion, common sense should dictate the way we view the period and Ireland’s greatest patriot, Theobald Wolfe Tone. He was born in Dublin in 1763 into a mixed religion family. As a young man he was prepared to work for reform, as distinguished from revolution. He lived through turbulent times with the French revolution, the American revolutionary war and the Anglo-French war. However, in the period leading up to the forming of the United Irishmen in Belfast in 1791 his mind had turned from being a reformer to being a revolutionary, by realising that independence was unattainable while the connection with England existed. A profound military challenge for him. The three great principles for which Wolfe Tone stood were (1) democracy (2) national sovereignty and (3) the union of all people in order to achieve the others. His non-sectarianism emphasis itself underlined the power of sectarianism and the threat it represented. Under the flag of the French Republic he engaged the English with a view to liberate Ireland. The 1798 rebellion failed. Tone was tried for treason and sentenced to be hanged.
The behaviour of the English during his incarceration gave rise to conspiracy theories on his death. Was it by suicide, was it at the hands of his incarcerators? His son William Theobald Tone wrote on the death of his father: “His death can never be considered as a suicide. It was merely the resolution of a noble mind, to disappoint, by his own act, the brutal ferocity of his enemies, and to avoid the indignity of their touch (hanging).” The Irish rebellion of 1798 brought the Irish question forcibly to the attention of the British Cabinet and the British prime minister decided that the best solution was a union. In spite of the Act of Union which united the Irish and British Parliaments in 1801, Irish pressures to reform British governance persisted in the 19th century, and to this day Wolfe Tone is known as the ‘Father of Irish Republicans’.
JAMES G BARRY
Dublin 6
Pointless mission
The LÉ William Butler Yeats has departed for its six-week Mediterranean Operation Irini mission to enforce a UN embargo on arms shipments into Libya. This is a pointless mission since Libya has been awash with arms since Nato helped overthrow its government in 2011. This mission should not have been authorised when most of the other Naval Service ships are tied up due to lack of crew members. It leaves an unacceptable gap in its duties to provide emergency marine duties off our Irish coasts.
This coincides with news of the dreadful tragedy that hundreds of migrants are likely to have drowned when a migrant ship from Libya sank near the coast of Greece. It’s been reported that about 100 children were packed into the hold of the ship. Most of them are believed to have drowned. The European Union Frontex agency, and the Greek Coast Guard, had been monitoring this ship for up to 12 hours prior to the disaster, and failed to offer any practical assistance until it was too late, thereby failing in their international laws of the
sea duties.
The presence of an Irish Naval Service ship off the coast of Libya imposes duties on the crew of that ship to provide emergency rescue services for migrants fleeing from Libya. This may be in conflict with its Operation Irini mission. The Irish government should now either change the mission of the LÉ William Butler Yeats from enforcing the arms embargo to rescuing migrants in danger of drowning or order the return of this ship to its duties off the Irish coast.
EDWARD HORGAN
Castletroy, Co Limerick
North should have input into flawed initiative
The Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin TD, has convened a Consultative Forum on International Security Policy to start a discussion on Ireland’s foreign and security policy. (Translation: the government has convened a group of establishment people, many from abroad, to end Irish neutrality.) The forum is designed to build public understanding and generate discussions on our foreign security and defence policies. (Translation: to browbeat the public into accepting an end to neutrality.) The forum will be open, inclusive, and consultative. (Translation: it will be closed, exclusive and elitist.) The forum met in Cork yesterday, Galway today and meets in Dublin on Monday and Tuesday.
In addition to the concerns I have about the nature, purpose and structure of the forum, including about those guiding it, there does not appear to be any facility for getting the views of the people of Northern Ireland. The ending of neutrality, which has been a integral part of Irish nationalism and republicanism since the time of Wolfe Tone, will affect the people of Northern Ireland as well the Republic. Even at this late stage, therefore, some effort should be made to allow an input from Northern Ireland into the work of, admittedly, a deeply flawed initiative.
MICHAEL CLARKE
Dublin 6
Ireland’s neutrality under attack
With the consultative forums regarding Ireland’s neutrality now taking place, I make the following observations and a suggestion regarding the recent Defence Forces Commission report.
From the outset, the composition of the commission was flawed. Of the 15 commission members, two-thirds were pro-EU ex-military men and officials favouring expanding military spending. The list of members did not represent the citizens of Ireland in a balanced way. Foreign agents should have no place on neutral Ireland’s Defence Forces Commission. Was the setting up of the commission and inviting public submissions designed to rubber-stamp the government’s pro-EU/Pesco/UN/Nato militarisation expansion agenda?
The taxpayer-funded deliberations and conclusion report should be declared null and void and thrown into the trash bin.
JOE TERRY
Blarney, Co Cork
