The “Savage” or the “Brave”
2020 has seen the centenaries of some of the significant events in Ireland’s recent history, from the death of Sean Tracey, Tomás Mac Curtain, Kevin Barry and Terrance McSweeney, the military success followed by horrible civilian tragedy of Bloody Sunday, the military triumphs such as Kilmichael, successful assassinations of RIC officers, and barrack raids throughout Ireland.
Despite the obvious difficulties caused by Covid19, across Ireland all these events have been remembered, from the high-profile commemoration events for Bloody Sunday to countless small local remembrance events across Ireland people are rightly celebrating their revolutionary history.
Republicans have of course long celebrated these events and those involved in the struggle have taken inspiration from the past generations of republicans. Yet there is an undeniable hypocrisy from official Ireland celebrating one generation of republicans while criminalising future generations.
No republican could look at the story of Kilmichael, where the IRA under Tom Barry were successful in attacking two lorries of British troops, and not draw a comparison with the Warrenpoint ambush where the IRA were successful in attacking two lorries of British troops. Looking at the facts of both the comparisons is obvious. No one would question the commemoration of Kilmichael or calling Barry and his comrades heroes yet doing the same for Warrenpoint leads to accusations of ‘glorifying terrorism’ and ‘celebrating murder’.
For official Ireland the actions of armed republicans 100 years ago can be commemorated but the actions of armed republicans 41 years ago must be criminalised. As republicans we make no such distinction. We commemorate the men and women who fought for Irish freedom, Wolfe Tone in 1798 to Patrick Kelly in 1997 and everyone in between who gave their lives for the cause of Irish Freedom.
The Good Friday agreement includes an understanding that there is no one single narrative of the conflict. The Good Friday Agreement states that a ‘culture of tolerance’ is essential to reconciliation, yet over 20 years on there is still a refusal from many to show any tolerance towards republicanism, or to accept that the republican view of the conflict is, in the spirt of the Good Friday agreement, a valid one. Instead the policy is still one of criminalisation.
41 years ago this policy of criminalisation was resisted by men and women on the blanket protest who refused to be treated as criminals, as Sinn Féin’s vote has increased in the twenty six counties in recent elections the policy of criminalisation has shifted to one of expecting Sinn Féin to disassociate ourselves from our past. The apparent rationale being that Sinn Féin can not be accepted in the ranks of the ‘normal parties’ without denouncing our past.
The danger now is that this narrative becomes internalised and elected reps shy away from overt republicanism least they be denounced by our opponents for the crime of being a republican, and in doing so risk becoming a normal party instead of a principled one. No Sinn Féin member should be afraid to say Warrenpoint was justified just as no Sinn Féin member is afraid to say Kilmicheal was justified.
Le Breandán Ó Conchúir