Republicans will use the excuse of how Sinn Fein elected representatives have attended Remembrance Sunday and Somme battle commemoration events, so the pro-Union community needs to return that ‘respect’ by attending Rising commemorations.
However, it seems in throwing down the ‘respect our tradition’ gauntlet to Unionists, republicans have ripped the word ‘context’ out of their political dictionaries.
Easter should be about commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but the real Easter message also seems to have become largely buried under the traditions of chocolate eggs and bunnies, bonnet competitions and shifting the caravan season into top gear.
For many in the pro-Union community, Easter marks the start of the traditional marching season with the Loyal Orders and bands taking to the streets. Many republicans, likewise, see Easter as the traditional homage to the men and women of 1916 who used the excuse of the Great War to stage yet another failed coup in Ireland.
Given the current splits within republicanism, it’s hard for us Unionists to know which is the real 1916 commemoration and which republican groups are merely jumping on the homage bandwagon.
However, what many republicans conveniently ignore is that there is a major difference between the events of the failed Rising and what was happening in the trenches of Europe in 1916.
Catholics and Protestants, nationalists and Unionists, died in their tens of thousands side by side during World War One. Remembrance Sunday commemorates all who served and sacrificed to combat the tyranny of the German Kaiser and the evils of Hitler’s Nazism during the Second World War. So why would the pro-Union community want to commemorate a ‘stab in the back coup’ during the Dublin Rising of 1916?
Has republican airbrushing and revising history now become so cocky that they actually push the myth that German machine-gunners at the Somme only targeted the 36th Ulster Division, made up mainly of Protestants from Lord Carson’s original 1912 Ulster Volunteer Force.
Surely the Germans did not yell – ‘would all the nationalists in the 16th Irish Division please move aside so that we can shoot only the Unionists in the 36th Ulster Division!’
Whilst that last paragraph may seem flippant, the pro-Union community should not underestimate the desire of republicanism to rewrite or airbrush history to suit its ideological agenda for Irish unity.
Republicans are entitled to commemorate their so-called ‘patriotic dead’, but many Unionists see the Easter Rising events as an insult to the tens of thousands of Irish nationalists who joined the British Army to fight in the Western front’s horrific trench warfare.
The 1916 Rising was not like 1798 and the Presbyterian-led United Irishmen’s rebellion where Protestant and Catholic fought alongside each other.
Neither is it like the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 where King William, the Prince of Orange, used his elite Catholic troops – the Dutch Royal Blues – to cross the river and strategically win the battle.
Of course, republicans may try to muddy the historical waters by insisting that a small number of the Irish Volunteers or members of the Irish Citizen Army who took part in the failed 1916 coup were actually from the Protestant tradition.
Likewise, given the ethnic cleansing policies against the pro-Union community by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles, especially by its so-called East Tyrone and South Armagh ‘brigades’, does the Sinn Fein leadership really expect Unionists to attend events honouring dead IRA terrorists?
There is a major difference between an Irish nationalist who donned the military uniform of the 16th Irish Division and fought German soldiers in the Great War, often in hand to hand combat, and the Provisional IRA terrorist who sneaks into a town and plants a no-warning bomb at the Cenotaph in Enniskillen aimed at killing civilians.
That’s why calls from republican elected representatives for the pro-Union community to attend Easter Rising events ring hallow just because a few Sinn Fein representatives have attended wreath laying ceremonies to mark all religions who served in the First and Second World wars.
Just as the republican movement has weaponised the Irish language – a language which Sinn Fein conveniently forgets was saved from extinction by mainstream Presbyterians – so too republicans seemed to have even weaponised the dead.
While republicans should have the freedom to honour those they consider to be their ‘patriotic dead’, they should not force those ceremonies on other people.
My cousin was an RUC Reservist killed on duty in Tyrone by an IRA booby-trap bomb in the Seventies. Does Sinn Fein actually expect me to attend any ceremony which ‘commemorates’ IRA terrorists who served in the East Tyrone ‘brigade’?
One of my chums was also an RUC Reservist; he was shot dead by the IRA in Ballymena in the Seventies as he walked home. Does Sinn Fein also think I would attend any ‘ceremony’ to mark its so-called North Antrim ‘brigade’?
Republicans also hold regular commemorations to remember the eight IRA terrorists from the East Tyrone ‘brigade’ who were shot dead by the SAS in the Loughgall ambush in May 1987.
One of the terrorists shot dead was Sinn Fein councillor Jim Lynagh, nicknamed the Executioner. He once turned up outside a church to shoot my late dad, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, a Presbyterian minister and a former North Antrim UUP MLA.
Fortunately, the church service finished ahead of schedule and dad had left the area. Does Sinn Fein actually believe that I, as a life-long Unionist, would seriously attend any ‘commemoration’ to Lynagh and his fellow terrorists?
Republicans may crow that the late Queen Elizabeth II, as part of a state visit to Southern Ireland, laid a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance memorial to Irish folk who fought the British during the War of Independence.
However, that does not mean that relatives of loved ones murdered by the Provisional IRA will be queuing up to attend any so-called ‘commemoration’ events organised by the republican movement. Republicans really need to get a better understanding of the word ‘context’.
Dr John Coulter has been a journalist since 1978.