THE IRISH State should not use the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising to glamorise violent republicanism but should seek to engage with progressive unionism in a new forum for debate, according to former senator Eoghan Harris.
Mr Harris told the annual Liam Lynch Commemoration at Kilcrumper Cemetery near Fermoy, Co Cork, that the new pluralist Republic should not use 2016 to cover up past abuses perpetrated by Irish republicanism.
Both Northern Ireland and the Republic “have flawed and bloody title deeds”, with the treasonable actions of Edward Carson and the Ulster Covenant in 1912 feeding into “the blood sacrifice blasphemy of Patrick Pearse” in 1916, he said.
“Republicans should admit their historical responsibility for much of the murder and mayhem on this island since 1916,” he said, adding that such an admission would put pressure on unionists to review their past actions.
“Republicans only remember their own martyrs. They discard deaths that do not fit their mould, the 2,000 civilians, the 302 Irish members of the RUC, the 763 working-class British squaddies sent to keep the peace [in Northern Ireland].”
Mr Harris said Lynch, like all republicans since 1916, failed to recognise that the crucial task facing Irish republicans was not breaking the link with Britain but rather forging a link with Northern Protestants.
About 100 people attended yesterday’s commemoration.
During Mr Harris’s address about 20 people left in protest and he was jeered and booed by a number of people. Kieran O’Keeffe, son of former Fianna Fáil TD Ned O’Keeffe, was among those who left in anger, shouting “it’s called revolution” as Mr Harris denounced what he described as sectarianism in the War of Independence in Co Cork.