Madam, – I was shocked to read the comments of Senator Liam Twomey in relation to Minister Brian Lenihan’s speech at the Béal na Bláth commemoration. Senator Twomey claims Mr Lenihan as a member of Fianna Fáil is unfit to give this year’s oration on the basis that his party is the political descendant of the anti-Treaty forces which killed Collins. The Civil War was a tragic period in Irish history when men and women who had fought together in the struggle for independence found themselves at war with each other over the best way to fulfil their common desire to achieve Irish freedom. The war engendered much bitterness and division and both sides were guilty of acts of cruelty and revenge. It was not the least achievement of the survivors of the war and the succeeding political generations that they managed to largely bury the rancour of this period and develop a mature and mutually respectful political discourse afterwards. For Mr Twomey to try to reignite this tragic division and to claim for one side the sole possession of moral rectitude while dismissing those who sincerely disagreed with them as murderers is disgraceful.
How can we call on unionists and nationalists in the North to pursue their differences with respect while one of our own politicians indulges in vicious and immature rhetoric of this kind? I call on Enda Kenny who, whatever his differences with Fianna Fáil on policy ground has always shown himself above this kind of political partisanship, to disown his colleague’s remarks and to reprimand him for same. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I think the hard and fast point that Senator Twomey was trying to make about Brian Lenihan’s anticipated appearance at Béal na mBláth is quite straight-forward.
Why should a man who has been complicit – by virtue of his membership as an elected national public representative for Fianna Fáil – in bringing this country to its knees be accepted as the person to orate the legacy of a true patriot like General Michael Collins? This is not about Civil War politics.
This is about honouring and commemorating a man who served Ireland first.
Surely it is plain for anyone to see that a man who has supported a Government that has bankrupt a nation in the service of its own vested interests is not fit to be present, let alone speak at the site where we lost one of Ireland’s greatest.
I wonder if this is “no less than a call to patriotic action”, as requested by Minister Lenihan in 2008. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As a historian I find Senator Liam Twomey's description of Michael Collins being "murdered" (August 12th) interesting. I frequently hear people talking about Michael Collins's "murder" and "assassination": would it not be fairer and more accurate to say that Michael Collins was killed in an ambush? Or would the Senator also agree that Liam Lynch was "murdered" during the Civil War? Finally the Senator describes Fine Gael as "the party that created the State under Michael Collins". It might interest him to know that Michael Collins was dead for 11 years before Eoin O'Duffy founded the Fine Gael party in 1933. – Yours, etc,
PÁDRAIG ÓG Ó RUAIRC,
Phairs Road,
Meelick,
Co Clare.
A chara, – Regarding Senator Liam Twomey's letter of August 12th, he writes (one assumes) with a straight face: "As a minister for finance himself, Michael Collins believed in transparency and accountability in his government and its ministers". The extent to which this statement is open to correction might be served by reminding Senator Twomey of Alan Bell. Bell was a royal magistrate tasked with locating the sources, the general ins and outs, of Collins's finance system. Bell was taken from a tram on Sandymount Avenue and shot by members of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA on Collins's orders. While I am certainly no supporter of Fianna Fáil, I have yet to see such drastic actions taken by Brian Lenihan towards those who seek to discover his party's financial make-up. – Is mise,
GEARÓID Ó FAOLEÁN,
O'Connell Avenue,
Limerick.