No crossed wires over martyrs' memorial in Enniscorthy

NEWTON'S OPTIC:THE PLAN by Enniscorthy Town Council to erect a memorial to the Edentubber bombers is entirely compatible with the peace process and the goal of reconciliation between both traditions in Ireland.

An under-appreciated fact about the five IRA men who died at Edentubber is that by accidentally killing themselves they saved the lives of a number of Protestants, thereby honouring the non-sectarian principles we have all come to associate with the Irish republican movement.

Another under-appreciated fact about the 1957 Border Campaign is that it marked the republican movement’s first acceptance of partition. Before then, republicans never mentioned the Border, referring only to “the six-county line”. Recognising the Border’s existence was their first step on a journey that would eventually lead to the Hume-Adams talks, the removal of articles 2 and 3 and the Good Friday Agreement.

There can thus be no doubt that the Enniscorthy memorial will be a tribute to peace. For advice on its design the council should look to Northern Ireland, which has considerable experience in this field.

A peace process memorial must be a large-scale work of sculpture containing two objects entwined or touching, or almost touching for added poignancy. Obvious places to hang a parking cone should also be included.

An Edentubber memorial could take the form of two wires, one green, one orange, crossed over to represent the moment when the charge was detonated.

This work, to be called Crossed Wires, would be realised in bronze by a woman with a blow-torch and a grant from the Arts Council.

Alternatively, as it is not known exactly what triggered the explosion, the memorial could take the more general and speculative form of a cigarette lighter in an upturned palm. This would symbolise ignition, outreach, flintiness and the Red Hand of Ulster. It would also equate republican violence with smoking, which many people have given up, although they still like a sneaky one at parties.

But perhaps these interpretive modes are too literal, even for a peace process memorial. Enniscorthy might prefer a more abstract piece, examining what went through the bombers’ minds at the precise moment of detonation. This could take the form of a fly and a windscreen, with the fly conceptually “blown up” to the size of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh’s head.

One of the great challenges for any memorial is to be relevant to the present day. In modern terms the Edentubber bombers could be described as suicide bombers. They could also be described as failed suicide bombers, although there is some confusion over whether this means failing to kill yourself or just failing to kill Protestants. Republicans usually refer to the Edentubber bombers as martyrs, further enhancing their contemporary resonance.

A work which combined all these elements in an inclusive way would be a powerful statement of artistic intent. It could take the form of two doves, their wings almost touching, each tugging at a different wire protruding from a discarded suicide belt. The piece could be realised in brass or possibly tin by a cross-community group of unemployed welders.

There is just one problem. Suicide bomber martyrdom also carries associations of virgins and paradise. So how could the sculpture be sited in Enniscorthy?