Are We Erasing Irish History to Avoid Offending Others? by Nuala Nolan
Dear Editor,
The Portraits of Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic 1923, and the Turkish national flag are legally or traditionally required in all Turkish public offices, schools and post offices.
In the Irish Republic, the Tricolour and portraits of those executed in 1916 were given pride of place but are now confined with “O’Leary to the grave”.
Even the Irish tricolour sadly has been relegated to a backdrop of a Celtic Park Match in Glasgow or an International Football away game or a protest march to the Dail.
It begs the question “Have we come to the stage where celebrating being Irish or our heroes of 1916 is looked on as a form of racism?”.
Sadly St Patrick’s Day is no longer a celebration of Irish conversion to Christianity but a vehicle for the promotion of tourism.
We seem to have lost the values our Republic was founded to promote.
As a follower of Turkish series on both Netflix and YouTube I find seeing the portrait of Mustafa Kamel Ataturk placed discreetly behind a school Principial or a Police Superintendent this portrays how the Turkish people still hold their founder in high regard.
So why is it that that a portrait of Padraic Pearse, a School founder and a barrister is no longer given pride of place in our schools of our Intuitions of 3rd Level Education?
Have we become embarrassed and ashamed as to the ideals and principals our 1916 heroes stood for?
Yours Sincerely,
Nuala Nolan,
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