Sir, - I am writing in relation to the proposed religious service for the 10 IRA men executed by the British army in 1920 and 1921. First I would like to make it clear that I have no objection to these men being mourned in a traditional way by their families and buried on hallowed ground. I do, however, object to the State presenting these men to the public as martyrs, who died for a cause.
These men are latter-day terrorists whatever way you look at it. They died fighting for something they believed in true enough, but they did this by means of inflicting terror on innocent people who did not share their beliefs. This should, following the tragic events in the United States, sound familiar, those hijackers/terrorists who crashed those planes in New York and Washington did so because Americans (and most of the western world for that matter) do not share their beliefs.
In some cases we hear that they did it in the name of religion. Why ever they did it, it does not belie the fact that they are terrorists even if they have been lead to believe that they by doing so they have been guaranteed a seat at the right hand of Allah. If a religious service was proposed for these men, as martyrs for their cause, what do you thing the general feeling would be? The answer as has be evidence by the universal outpouring of grief following the US attacks, would be one of disgust and revulsion.
The peace process, failing as it is, should have as its corner stone, acceptance. People have to stop looking at each other and seeing, Catholics, Protestants. We should not be labelled or defined by our religion (which most of us did not choose). People have to realise that there is good and bad in every religion, race, and in every town in Ireland. Once people have accepted that at the end of the day we are all people, they need to release that you have to respect others beliefs even where you do not agree with them and further that beliefs are private, personal matters and should be treated as such. For these reasons services such as that proposed for the IRA men should be for the benefit of their families and followers.
They should not be a platform for politicians such as Gerry Adams to win more votes by playing the poor beleaguered Irish card again. Certainly most decent Irish people who are opposed to any sort of political violence should not have to witness such a spectacle or have it endorsed by the highest elected representatives of our Government.
It would seem that by the Government attending such services in its official capacity will only highlight divides in this country. By all means attend in a personal capacity if you so wish, but do not turn the funerals of 10 terrorists into a national event. Has anyone in Leinster House thought about the families/ancestors of those killed? I doubt it.
The hypocrisy of having a national day of mourning for victims of the worst terrorist attack the world has seen, followed a month later by honouring our own terrorists! And we thought that Mr Ahern and co were serious about a "war on terrorism". It would seem that its only a war on other countries terrorists, because we don't have any of our own.- Yours, etc.,
Johanna Hogan, Rathmines, Dublin 6.