Madam, – Is there not something ironic that the national day of this Republic is a commemoration of a Catholic saint and not a celebration of the foundation of the Republic? South Africa has Freedom Day, India, its Republic Day and France, Bastille Day.
I therefore suggest that from next year the June bank holiday Monday become Republic Day: a day we as citizens celebrate our country and also honour those who this Republic has let down including the children who were so severely damaged because this Republic operated in the dark secret shadows of the Irish Catholic Church.
Let the first Republic Day be a day when: the President of Ireland welcomes the passing of a constitutional referendum on children’s rights; no bishop remains a patron of of a State-funded institution; the papal nuncio is no longer the ex-offio dean of the diplomatic corps; and our ambassador to the Vatican is also the ambassador to Rome whether the Vatican approves of dual diplomatic representation or not.
Maybe then, and only maybe, can we start being viewed by the other republics of the world as one of them, rather than a colony of Vatican city. It might also go some way to fulfilling the pledge in the 1916 Proclamation of treating all of the children of the nation equally. – Yours, etc,