Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Senators Currie and Gavan about the report on collusion. It is welcome to see an acknowledgement of the truth of that collusion coming forward. There is more to come on that front. I also believe there is no hierarchy among the dead or the victims, on either side of what was a dirty war in Northern Ireland. The grief and suffering of the families of one side is more or less the same as the grief and suffering of the families of another side.In that context I wish to point out that, last week, there was the sad news that the Glasnevin Cemetery board was forced to throw in the towel and give up trying to maintain a non-judgmental necrology wall, which commemorated everybody who died in the period 1916-23 during the Troubles in this country, regardless of who they were, be they children, civilians, combatants on either side of the Civil War, policemen, IRA volunteers, British soldiers, and the like. This monument was at that cemetery, which is a wonderful heritage site, in a non-judgmental way. It was erected by the board of the cemetery, which is a charity, to remind people that while they are surrounded by history, they are many people who are forgotten by history. It contained the names of children and policemen in the RIC who were shot down in their homes and the like. Their families are looking back across 100 years. Surely, they are entitled to have their names memorialised in some way without thugs coming in and smashing the whole monument.

There was the possibility of attempting to keep that necrology wall functional as a memorial and the cemetery board had to give up on that proposition because it could not afford the security involved. Perhaps the blank tablets that will now be put up instead will be more eloquent in the future than the inscribed names. Perhaps there was a case to be made for leaving it smashed as an indication that the haters in Irish society are the tiny minority and the great majority of us, like Joe Duffy, believe that small people and those who were unpopular deserve not to have their memory obliterated in the cause of some ideology.