Am I missing the big punchline, or has slavish Irish obsequiousness reached such a low that it can no longer even be mocked or humorously derided?

Today is the anniversary of Bloody Sunday [the 1920 one], when members of the Royal Irish Constabulary fired indiscriminately into a crowd of Irish men, women and children who were attending a football match; killing over a dozen of them. The Royal Irish Constabulary was the armed colonial police force in Ireland and was tasked with playing a supporting role to the British army, then in conflict with the Irish Republican Army of the democratically mandated Irish Republic.

Many of those who asserted Irish sovereignty through armed struggle against the British Empire are now buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin; names like Kevin Barry, O’Donovan Rossa, Harry Boland, Thomas Ashe, Cathal Brugha.

Now, retired members of our esteemed police force are agitating to erect a monument in that same cemetery to those who participated in the subjugation of their own country; members of a constabulary that was involved in the indiscriminate shooting of civilians attending a football match, members of a colonial police force that destroyed three villages on the west coast of Clare - killing six civilians, that cut the hearts and tongues out of prisoners at Kerry Pike.

RETIRED gardai are seeking permission from the Government to erect a monument in Glasnevin Cemetery to 500 members of the Royal Irish Constabulary, including the 'Black and Tans', who were killed by the IRA in the War of Independence.

Retired gardai to honour RIC - National News - Independent.ie

Granted, some of the Gardai who are now at retiring age served during the 1970s when it was no uncommon thing for an arrested person to be denied sleep for four and five days straight under the Emergency Powers Act, when confessions were regularly beaten out of people – where 80% of convictions for serious crimes arose from ‘confessions’ – where an unarrested women could be pinned down and stripped in an interrogation room in the presence of male Gardai when arriving at a station to enquire about an arrested husband.*

Seriously, though?


*Magill, 30 May 1985 & The Irish Times, 14, 15 & 16 February, 1977

Ah but sure it'd be mature of us.

I hear the residents of Dresden are erecting a statue to bomber harris too.

Slow news day - Connolly house having to work very hard if they can only poop stir with this in the UK Forum ......

Why are you surprised? The Cosgrave government signed over our security services to the control of MI6 in the 1970s - and they have controlled them since.

Good to see there's no monopoly on righteous indignation. A statue to some people who died nearly 100 years ago. Don't we do that kind of thing all the time?

Truly, it is beyond satire. As they gather around the monument perhaps they can sing Breandán Ó hEithir's revisionist ballad, 'The Gentle Black and Tan'.

THE GENTLE BLACK AND TAN

Come all you staunch revisionists
And listen to my song,
It's short and it's unusual
And it won't detain you long.
It's all about a soldier
Who has carried history's can,
Who dodged Tom Barry and Dan Breen
The gentle Black and Tan.

'Twas the curse of unemployment
That drove him to our shore.
His jacket black and trousers tan
Like a badge of shame he wore.
"Subdue the rebel Irish
And shoot them when you can!"
"May God forgive me if I do,"
Prayed the gentle Black and Tan.

The burning of Cork city
Was indeed a mighty blaze.
The jewellers' shops were gutted
Not before the spoils were shared.
Gold and silver ornaments,
Rings and watches for each man,
"But I only struck the matches,"
Said the gentle Black and Tan.

Croke Park and Bloody Sunday
Was our hero's greatest test.
The spectators on the terraces
Nigh impossible to miss.
With salt tears his eyes were blinded
And down his cheeks they ran,
So he only shot Mick Hogan
The gentle Black and Tan.

So take heed you blinkered Nationalists
Fair warning take from me.
If you want to live in safety
And keep this land at sea.
Take heed of our three heroes
Murphy, Edwards and Yer Man,
Who will sing the fame and clear the name
Of the gentle Black and Tan.

Originally Posted by Nordie Northsider

Truly, it is beyond satire.

But what has it to do with the UK Forum ?

Originally Posted by sic transit

Good to see there's no monopoly on righteous indignation. A statue to some people who died nearly 100 years ago. Don't we do that kind of thing all the time?

Erect statues to the armed police force of a foreign power, a police force involved in the deliberate killing of Irish civilians?
Do we?

I presume that the RIC men who threw down their guns and refused to take the order to shoot anyone with their hands in their pockets should be remembered as much as anyone else.

Originally Posted by former wesleyan

I presume that the RIC men who threw down their guns and refused to take the order to shoot anyone with their hands in their pockets should be remembered as much as anyone else.

Absolutely. Memory does not require a stone monument.