The past cannot be used to prohibit a campaign for President
■ Criostóir Ó Gealgáin’s letter ‘Let us remember SF’s legacy before casting a vote for Liadh Ní Riada’ (Irish Independent, Letters, July 2) urged us not to forget the legacy of Sinn Féin before we cast a vote if Ms Ní Riada does indeed enter the presidential race.
I won’t pick through the points reminding us of various wrong doings of the IRA and by association SF, because much of it cannot be denied but both sides of that divide can point to various wrongdoings and the whole roller coaster of the blame game can be regurgitated over and over.
Criostóir Ó Gealgáin signed off saying: “Let us not forget their legacy before we consider putting one of theirs into the highest office in this country.”
If we keep dragging up the wrongdoing of that conflict we will never get beyond it. Since the Good Friday peace agreement, which has managed to keep the bomb and the bullet off the streets of Ireland for 20 years, a whole generation of young, vibrant people has grown up and joined the political parties that represent both sides. They are going down the path of diplomacy as urged by the long-established parties of both the British and the Irish.
If we are to keep going back 20 years pointing out the atrocities of the IRA – and SF by association –then should we not look at the main political parties of the south who all emerged under the banners of factions that committed atrocities in the Civil War.
All that separates the atrocities of paramilitaries in both conflicts – who were eventually represented by FF, FG, SF – is about 90-plus years. In fact it was well more than a decade later that criminality and atrocities were still being perpetrated by diehards of both sides of the Civil War.
So, Crióstoir Ó Gealgáin, when it comes to the next presidential election should we not forget what the forerunners of FF and FG did during the Civil War before we think of putting one of them into the highest office in the country? Of course not.
If everyone had taken that stance after the Civil War atrocities then no one would have been eligible to take that office.
Anthony McGeough