Remembering nation’s past must be collective endeavour, it is more urgent than rearranging administrative infrastructure
Northern Ireland a ‘disaster’ and UK government has ‘responsibility to step in’, says former Stormont speakerThe annual commemoration of the IRA’s South Armagh brigade has been part of Republicans’ calendar for 13 years. It is billed as a family day out, complete with entertainment and refreshments.
The quid pro quo was that the Irish government would establish an inquiry into the murders the same year of two RUC officers, Bob Buchanan and Harry Breen, by the IRA in South Armagh. The Smithwick Tribunal duly began its work and submitted its final report 10 years ago on the circumstances surrounding the officers’ deaths.
Staying schtum – whether it is by choice or enforced by others – is bad for the health of individuals and for communities, especially when so much had been unspeakable for so long. Not talking is a method of denial. The phenomenon is poignantly captured by Michael Maguire in his Belfast-set novel, Close to Home, about the trans-generational psychological legacy compounded by the older generation’s dictum “don’t mention the war”.
During the Easter Rising commemorations in 2016, President Higgins’s speeches provided a masterclass in how to live with the past so as to make a better future. Reconciliation, he said, was not simply about tolerating others; it was about engaging with them. This cannot happen as long as people feel unable to speak about their perspectives of what happened and why.not attend IRA commemorations
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