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| From: Irish Political Review: Editorials |
| Date: February, 2014 |
| By: Editorial |
The Holy Sacrifice Of The War |
The Holy Sacrifice Of The War In this first year of a decade of commemorations—from the illusion of a Home Rule Act in 1914 to the collapse of Treatyite illusions about Northern Ireland in 1925—a reminder of what should not be remembered or thought about is important. Don't think at the War. Don't ask what it was about. Bear in mind only that war is sacrifice, and think only about sacrifice—the great sacrifice that was a Holocaust. The great sacrifice of Gallipoli, the Somme, and Paschendale, that did not serve any earthly ambition and is therefore sacred. Think a lot about the small, purposeful, sacrifice of the Easter Rising and agonise over the pitifully small handful of deaths it caused and puzzle over whether it was a crime. What justification could there be for such a trifling attempt at warfare when you could have done away with yourself, without domestic disturbance, as an approved victim in the sacrament being performed in France—and get paid for it too. The most important things not to think about are the Elections of 1918 and 1920, because they spoil the flavour of the Holocaust. The 1918 Election was thought about too much on its half-centenary, and look at what that led to! Muriel MacSwiney, the widow of Terence, was still around then. She noticed that, while there had been great hullabaloo about the half-centenary of 1916, nothing was being planned for the Election on which the state was based. She asked Jack Lynch (that good man) why not? Against his own better judgment, Lynch organised a Mansion House Commemoration of the meeting of the First Dail in January 1919. The occasion was spoiled by Dennis Dennehy's hunger strike in Mountjoy on the issue of homelessness, which brought central Dublin to a standstill, struck fear into the hearts of the Establishment, convincing them that Bolshevik revolution was at hand, and making them mentally unfit to cope with the Northern situation when it erupted six months later. But rest easy. We see no plans to hold a great commemoration of that unfortunate Election. We are only asked to celebrate the Great War unquestioningly and the Rebellion problematically. An Irish Times editorial on the Great War is titled Dulce et decorum est . . .. It is delightful and becoming. The conclusion of the Latin tag which was used as the title of a poem by Wilfred Owen is pro patria mori—to die for your country. The theme of the editorial is that there should be no disagreement over what the War was for—and, for that matter, no agreement either. The event should be commemorated piously and mindlessly. It takes British Minister Michael Gove to task for arguing with some Godforsaken remnant of the British Left over what it was about, and being "bullishly patriotic". How right it is! If it is possible for us— "to embrace in our collective remembering… the ideas of Carson and Redmond and Pearse, the Covenant, as well as the Home Rule, the campaigns for women's suffrage and for the rights of workers. And that most seminal of events the 1916 Rising", —then of course we cannot do it patriotically, there being no patria which would bind all of these things together. So "our consensus on the need for a common understanding of commemoration as a shared remembering" must not be tainted by patriotism—or by remembering either! Could it be that the Irish Times, that was once given style at least by the likes of Robert Smyllie has sunk so low that its editorials are now being penned by that unequalled writer of goo, Stephen Collins? The editorial has a puzzling motto, "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him". That was Mark Anthony's opening gambit in his slippery speech in praise of Caesar. So we can take it that the Irish Times is only holding the line with this gibberish until it is safe to get back to saying what it thinks. CONTENTS Hassta La Vista (We Won't Be Back!). Pat Walsh European Parliament Elections: Another Beauty Contest! Jack Lane The Holy Sacrifice Of The War. Editorial Readers' Letters: Commemorations. Wilson John Haire Shorts from the Long Fellow (Boom & Bust; J.B. Say; Paul Krugman; Fintan O'Toole; More On The Economy; NAMA; François Hollande) 'Disappearing' The UVF. Seán McGouran Paisley In The Spotlight. Editorial Es Ahora. Julianne Herlihy. The Raj In The Rain (Part 3) Irish Times Demands A New German Imperialism. Philip O'Connor Come All Ye Ultramontane Anti-Revisionists. Jack Lane Lethal Allies! Angela Clifford (Review of Ann Cadwallader book) Did Borgonovo Miss This Point About The First Dáil And War? Manus O'Riordan A Critic Emerges From Academia, Michael Carragher. Brendan Clifford (Part 2) Biteback: The Problem With GM Plans. Tim O'Sullivan (Unpublished letter about Dr. David McConnell, Irish Times) Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Church Of Ireland History) Censorship, British Style. Seán McGouran Digging. Wilson John Haire (Poem) Labour Comment: Guilds And Corporatism, Mondragon, Part 26 Trade Union Notes Finian McGrath, Press Releases |