IT IS time for the Republic to consider making the Twelfth of July commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne a public holiday, former tánaiste Michael McDowell told the summer school yesterday.
He asked: “Could an Irish government minister in the near future attend a Twelfth demonstration in Northern Ireland in the same way they now attend St Patrick’s Day parades around the world, or is that impossible for some reason?”
Speaking as part of a series entitled, “The Republic I Want To See”, the former leader of the Progressive Democrats said he wanted to look ahead to the Ireland of 20 years hence and how the two parts of the island would relate to one another at that stage.
“I make no apology for saying here that I favour Irish unity, and I believe, very much like Garret FitzGerald, that Irish independence was, and is, a good thing for the people of this State.
“I do not believe that we would have a fairer or better society, socially or economically, had Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom.”
With a powersharing Executive in place in Northern Ireland it was time to think aloud about where Ireland was going and what could be done to build and shape that future. The national flag was green, white and orange, symbolising a recognition and reconciliation of the green and orange traditions. But he asked: “Do we really face up to the implications of that orange panel in our flag?” He took the orange panel as, “not simply as symbolising the Orange Order, but in a wider sense as symbolising all that is Irish but that is not Gaelic and Catholic”.
It had been said that Northern Ireland in the past was a cold place for Catholics, but Mr McDowell asked: “Are we in the South warm towards the Orange tradition? Do we respect it? Have we created a society, a history and a culture in which the Orange tradition finds itself in a cold place?”
The great majority in the Republic still had difficulty in according genuine parity of esteem to the Orange tradition in Irish history.
“You don’t have to become an out and out revisionist or start to doubt the truth of everything we value.” But there was room for “a new era of understanding and of generosity, and for a great change of heart. I think that in the South, we still need that great change of heart”.
He paid “warm public tribute” to the President Mary McAleese and her husband, Martin, “for their leadership and example in this important issue”.
“It is they who have been building bridges in private and public between the Irish State and the Orange and Loyalist people of Northern Ireland.” He regretted to say that their early efforts in this direction were “initially viewed with some suspicion by elements within the Irish establishment who favoured a more traditional role, not merely for the presidency, but also for old attitudes”.
As their 14 years of service in Áras an Uachtaráin began to draw to a close, “the greatest expression of gratitude which the Irish people owe them and can give them is the reassurance that the bridges they have been building will not be allowed to crumble or decay”.
He wanted to emphasise that “enhanced respect for the Orange panel does not imply downgrading or reducing our respect and love for things green”.
Mr McDowell said people in the Republic could not remain as “passive spectators” when a small group of “political psychopaths and would-be revolutionaries” sought to precipitate a “Balkan-style inter-communal war”.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Mr McDowell, who lost his Dáil seat in the last general election, refused to take questions on his future political intentions, if any.
