Response to Irish Times Op-Ed

Posted by Jim on January 14, 2016

Letters Editor

IRISH CENTRAL

 

Dear Editor:

 

Fr. Murphy’s “Rite and Reason…” (1/12) commentary is thoughtful and thought provoking.    However, several points about the 100th commemoration of the Easter Rising need context.

 

1. He claims the Easter Rising  was not justified and that the commemorative events planned imply that it was.  No doubt he would feel the American Revolution was unjustified because of a dispute over a Stamp tax on tea.  Nor would the Declaration of Independence’s long list of grievances satisfy his criteria for a  “…model of political action.”  Ireland’s grievances were far greater than were America’s and  the price paid for their subservience  and more destructive of Ireland’s people and culture.

 

2. He states: “A real Republic is created by voters, is established in structures of representative democracy, and the rule of law and lives in the people’s democratic practices and culture.”  In the last General Election in all of Ireland in 1918, which was run by the British government, Sinn Fein and Nationalists  won three quarters of the seats and the Dail created by those representatives was declared a criminal conspiracy.  The British followed with assassinations and the Black and Tans.  Is this the “legitimate authority” Fr. Murphy cites?

 

3. The author declares:  “ the Rising’s leaders were men of violence”  and to celebrate their actions is “…to celebrate  anti-democratic elitism and a bloodlust.” This is straight from the British propaganda playbook.  But if it were so,  how do you describe centuries of lawless persecution by a hereditary monarchy?  What’s the buzzword for   the single most monstrous act of a British ‘democracy’  against the Republic;  the no warning bombing of  Dublin and Monaghan shopping centers?  Bloodlust?   Isn’t it right to label the perpetrators of that crime aristocratic men of violence and an anti-democratic elite?   I’ve  never heard or seen those labels from religious, Fine Gael or the Independent newspaper.  It seems “bloodlust” and “anti-democratic elite” are reserved for those striking a blow for Irish freedom.

 

In 40 years of activism I never expected sympathetic religious in Ireland or  in America   to support the IRA or violence of any sort.  But the manifest failure of those  religious to speak out against injustices and to speak  truth to power of the violence done to Irish society  100 years ago and today  is indicative of a church filled with careerists NOT a church filled with men and women with vocations.  It’s clear Fr. Murphy represents the best and brightest of the careerists.

 

Sincerely,

Michael J. Cummings