Sir, – The Glasnevin Trust must be commended for erecting the Remembrance Wall in Glasnevin Cemetery, which honours all who died during the Easter Rising in 1916. For me it is an appropriate, thoughtful and moving memorial. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – In light of the State’s 1916 centenary ceremonies honouring “all who died”, we wish to state for the record and in the interest of historical accuracy that the O’Rahilly was wounded in a charge up Moore Street upon evacuation of the GPO and was left to die on the street overnight without medical assistance and that 14 leaders, including a wounded James Connolly, were executed by firing squad in the Stonebreakers’ Yard in Kilmainham Gaol.
All gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom. – Yours, etc,
PROINSIAS O’RATHAILE,
JAMES CONNOLLY
HERON,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – The unveiling of the Memorial Wall in Glasnevin Cemetery, which includes the names of British soldiers alongside Irish rebels killed during the Easter Rising, appears to be an act of atonement and state apology to opponents of Irish independence for our audacity in commemorating our political and cultural independence and our revolutionary heroes of 1916.
To memorialise those that prosecuted Britain’s war in Ireland in attempts to prevent the establishment of the Irish state alongside those who gave their lives fighting for Irish independence is carrying political ecumenism to extremes.
Does the British government memorialise those Luftwaffe bomber pilots brought down while on bombing missions over London and Coventry? British forces killed while enforcing colonial rule around the world are not commemorated by the former colonised.
Those killed fighting the Mau Mau aren’t commemorated in Kenya. Indeed, as the recent apology extended by the British government to Kenya for the brutality inflicted on the Mau Mau during their war for independence demonstrates, it is now common for the British to make apologies and reparation for their past colonial atrocities. In Ireland, bizarrely, we honour and memorialise our former colonisers. – Yours, etc,
TOM COOPER,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – The detractors of the Memorial Wall in Glasnevin cemetery should recall that even James Connolly before he was murdered could show humanitarian respect for “all men who do their duty according to their lights”. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET O’LEARY,
Finglas East,
Dublin 11.