Madam, - The signatories of the Proclamation of Independence must have been turning in their graves on Easter Sunday last, at the way the Easter Rising Commemorations were handled by the State this year.
A barrier over six feet high and covered in black heavy plastic over steel fencing prevented most members of the public from seeing anything of the ceremonies.
The small number of people who did get through to the area near the GPO did so only by submitting to being searched by the gardaí at the entrance to a corral-type system of fencing.
I don't think this is what the aforementioned signatories had in mind somehow!
However, the ironies don't stop there. I went along to the commemorations and had a banner with me which called for the protection of the Tara/Skryne Valley.
I stood, like most other people, outside the cordon, on the Clerys side of O'Connell Street.
The cordon was a lot taller than I am, so I couldn't see anything, but I held the Tara banner over my head and it could be seen inside the cordon.
I was there only a short time when three gardaí and a plainclothes policeman came over to me, looked at the banner and demanded that I put it down.
I stated my objection that I wasn't doing anything unlawful but he continued insisting that I put down the banner or move along off O'Connell Street.
When I asked what would happen if I stayed holding the banner, I was told I would be forcibly removed ie, arrested. I could not believe this was happening. While this was occurring, the Proclamation was read out and the National Anthem sung from the podium.
It would be funny if it wasn't so frightening, undemocratic and farcical that the very land which the signatories fought to free is now being destroyed, not by any occupying force, but by our own Irish Government, and that Irish citizens who try to publicise or object to this, are being threatened with arrest.
I sincerely hope that the people of Tibet are not in any way
depending on the present Irish Government to support them in their
search for their human rights. - Yours, etc,
TERRI MURRAY
The Anchorage
Bettystown
Co Meath.
A chara, - Gerald Morgan (March 24th) reminds us that because Easter is a moveable feast, we have this year had "to commemorate the Easter Rising on March 24th, fully a month too soon".
Perhaps it was this confusion over dates that caused the leader of the Opposition to neglect to attend the official State commemoration of this key moment in modern Irish history.
One can only hope that his failure to attend was inadvertent and
not deliberate. - Is mise,
DONNACHA MAGUIRE,
Fr McCullen Park,
Kells,
Co Meath.