Spoke Article -- 29 April 2006

No party has a monopoly on Irish History

When last autumn an Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced to the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis that there would be a military parade to commemorate 1916 it was clear to most observers what his intentions were. Our Taoiseach who supposedly represents the people in a non - partisan way was attempting to politicise what should be a National event. A party conference is no place for a National leader to make such announcements.

All political parties in the Republic with the exception maybe of the Greens can claim a descent from the Leaders of the Easter Rebellion. As such our Head of Government should have established an all-party committee to ensure that these celebrations would have been genuinely inclusive of all aspects of Irish society and the Irish state. In choosing the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis the Taoiseach pinned his partisan colours to the mast. Labour are connected to the rebellion through the involvement of James Connolly while W.T Cosgrave a Fine Gael luminary was next in line to be executed after DeValera. Are their sacrifices to be airbrushed out of the history books to suit Bertie's electoral interests?

However the Taoiseach's most regrettable error of judgement in all of this occurred at the opening of the 1916 exhibition in Collins Barracks. There the Taoiseach chose what he believed to be the "four cornerstones of independent Ireland". He cited the 1916 Rising DeVelera's constitution of 1937 our entry to the EEC in 1973 and finally his own role in the Good Friday Agreement. A selective list by anybody's standards. Remarkably the Taoisach managed to omit the ratification of our first treaty of national Independence signed by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith as one of those cornerstones. No mention either for the Cosgrave government's role in establishing Irish Democracy on stable foundations following the destruction of the Civil War. When the people spoke at the ballot box in 1932 that Cumann na nGheadheal government handed over power to those they had defeated in the Civil War a decade earlier ensuring that normal parliamentary practice would be a reality in Ireland. How could our Taoiseach fail to mention John A. Costello's role in declaring Ireland a Republic in 1949 or Liam Cosgrave's leadership in bringing Ireland into the UN in 1956? Surely taking our place among the nations of the world was a cornerstone of our independence? The Taoiseach rightly describes the Good Friday Agreement as a key part of our development but manages to exclude the Sunningdale Agreement and the Anglo - Irish Agreement each the work of former Fine Gael Taoisigh and each the stepping stone to the 1998 Agreement. Why does our Head of Government make these omissions is he aware of their importance? It is unacceptable that our Head of government sees fit to airbrush out non Fianna Fail contributions from our recent history and is a sure sign that the man has been in power for too long. In Britain Labour Prime Ministers are big and brave enough to acknowledge Churchill's contribution to the war effort the same standards such apply here in our own country.

National commemorations launched by a Taoiseach are no place for petty party politics. They provide a welcome opportunity to unite all of us who are proud of the men and women of 1916 and who wish to recognise their role in our country's subsequent development. One would expect more from a head of government than the selective knowledge of history displayed by Bertie Ahern. The Taoiseach in attempting to claim the Rising for Fianna Fail and in selectively choosing the key events in the nation's development demonstrates that he is clearly lacking the characteristics of a true National Leader. It is impossible now to view our current Taoiseach as anything other than a partisan Fianna Fail figure using his high office to stave off the inevitable seat losses his party faces at the next election. That's not the kind of leadership that statesmen such as Parnell or Collins DeValera or Cosgrave ever settled for and neither should the Irish people.

Mel Farrell
Chairperson of Maynooth Young Fine Gael

To view current and past editions of NUIM Magazine "SPOKE" click here