SERIOUS, INFORMED public debate and courageous leadership were required in response to the “dilution of trust” in Ireland’s institutions, including the Catholic Church, Bishop of Down and Connor Dr Noel Treanor has said.
Speaking at the annual State commemorative Mass at Arbour Hill yesterday in honour of the leaders of the 1916 Rising, Dr Treanor said that a “shortfall” persisted in various sectors and “cancerous growths in the tissue of society now also require radical surgery”.
"Not even a full week ago, we read survey statistics, published in The Irish Times, indicating the surge in the growth of distrust in church, Government, banks, hospitals and the media. I think the Army escaped – it wasn't mentioned."
He said “the contagion of distrust” was “corrosive” of hope, “and especially of the hope of the young – hope, which is another vital and spiritual element in the social capital of a people and a nation”.
The were no “instant solutions”, he said. “Serious, informed public debate must be pursued on the basis of renewal steps already taken.
“Civil society and intermediate organisations must encourage, foster and create a space for courageous leadership.”
Bishop Treanor added that the sacrifice of the men and women of 1916 “was the crucible of independence and the cradle of the Irish State. In the meantime, as we know, Ireland has developed and grown.
“In the course of nine decades a democratic State based on the rule of law with a competitive market economy was built.
“Poverty, existential and structural, was confronted to a significant extent with measures promoting economic development. This in conjunction with reform and investment in education, and in research, prepared our country for the seismic cultural propulsion that we experienced in recent decades from a mainly agrarian-based economy to the contemporary global and info-tech society . . . Ireland assumed its place among the family of nations, found the fullness of its identity through its membership of the European communities and there utterly transformed its relationship with Britain.
“In the matrix of the European Union the relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the North of Ireland has reached a maturity that we few of us would have imagined or dreamed possible even 40 years ago. For all this and more we give thanks today as we commemorate the dead of the Rising of 1916.”
The singer at the Mass was Deirdre Ní Chinnéide and other performers included two members of the Dubliners, fiddler John Sheahan and guitarist Eamonn Campbell, with harpist Noreen O’Donoghue, piper Mick O’Brien and fiddler Ceolagh Sheahan.
When the Mass was over, President Mary McAleese placed a wreath at the graves of the 1916 leaders in the church grounds. Taoiseach Brian Cowen and other Ministers were among the attendance as were former taoisigh Liam Cosgrave and Albert Reynolds, Acting Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces Maj Gen Dave Ashe, Chief Justice Mr Justice John Murray and Mrs Justice Susan Denham.