Taking the ball home

On the recent controversy over the Fine Gael government's plans to commemorate the RIC, and the subsequent decision to cancel those plans, Irish independent economist Dan O'Brien argues that "reflecting on history should become more like the practice of faith - a private affair." This is to avoid unnecessary controversy caused by bringing up old and irrelevant divisions.

Is Dan sulking? The force of public opinion caused Fine Gael to backtrack on its ill-advised proposal. Perhaps Dan is a bit sore over this and consequently does not want anything to be publicly commemorated now. The giveaway is the following line; "...and how strongly some of those who opposed it appear to feel on the subject."

So all the strong feelings are on one side? The proposal itself was the outcome of Minister Flanagan's own very personal and strong feelings about the subject. It was completely and explcitly unsupported by the expert advisory group on commemorations, despite the minister's claims otherwise. His strong feelings on the subject were also apparent in various interviews he did to try and defend his decision.

There were strong feelings on both sides. But the issue here is not an inability to commemorate the past, but just an unwillingness to celebrate certain things, and a feeling of genuine annoyance when a government tries to celebrate those things.

It probably was an irrelevant and unnecessary distraction but that was Fine Gael's fault for starting such a pointless fight. It was not irrelevant in the sense that the history of the RIC or Tans in Ireland is irrelevant. History like that is as relevant as the current times dictate, and the passions (passion not being a dirty word btw) aroused show that the subject matter is still very important.

So contrary to O'Brien's narrative, Fine Gael, due to strong feelings, sought to commemorate something that was not appropriate to commemorate, and were forced to backtrack due to inevitable and justifiable backlash of the pubic. Using this as a argument for banning all commemorations is just sour grapes. The controversy is a signal to think a little more carefully about what we commemorate, not that commemorations should cease full stop.