SHANE BRYAN JOHNSTON,
Madam, - November 11th marks the 84th anniversary of the end of the first World War, and it is an important time to reflect on how what one might call "mono-culturalism" still influences our approach to the past today.
I wonder how many people know offhand that half-a-million Irishmen served their country, as it then stood, in the first World War? Who remembers the Irishmen who liberated Guillemont or Wytschaete from German rule?
They volunteered. Almost 50,000 of them never returned. Their motives for joining were diverse; many did so because they wanted to secure Home Rule for Ireland, others did so out of loyalty to Britain, many because their friends joined, some even out of boredom.
It was the last time when all the people of Ireland sank their political differences in a wider common cause, perhaps the last time all our people were truly united.
For the past 88 years we have largely ignored them. This marks one of the greatest stains on the character of this State since its creation. The fact is that half-a-million Irishmen in the service of the British Army simply does not conform to the nationalist "world view" that still holds sway in this country. This is why the Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge were disgracefully allowed to fall in to ruin for decades. This is why Irish involvement in the war still gets only a few lines' mention in our children's history books.
One cannot but conclude that these men are still seen as those who fought in the "wrong" war for the "wrong" country, that Republican insurgents are the only "true" soldiers of their land, the only ones worthy of reverence and honour. I dispute that entirely.
Naturally this issue becomes entangled in politics and the point should not be a political one, but one of respect. We all have an obligation to ourselves to keep alive the memory of men who died in nobody's name but our own.
For the fallen of the Great War the traditional lament has been: "Lest we forget". The reality is, sadly, that Ireland refuses to remember. - Yours etc.,
SHANE BRYAN JOHNSTON, Thornhill Road, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin.