Recalling Civil War will be ‘raw’ – for my own family too
THE forthcoming commemorations of the War of Independence and the Civil War will be ‘more raw’ than the 2016 celebrations this year, President Higgins has told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Having enjoyed the success of the Rising Commemoration, he now feels we face a more difficult task in how we deal with the remaining legacy of the Independence era – something he is acutely aware of due to his own family history.
‘I would say this is an interesting thing and I have not discussed it before with anyone else either, but if you think that this [Commemoration] was challenging – and it was a very important year in 2016, really – the real challenge is going to be how we are going to handle the War of Independence, and that in itself will be nothing to how one is going to handle the Civil War.
‘Now, in my case, one of the events I attended during the year was the opening of the military archives, and you will have read in the paper the details of my father.
‘My father, my uncles and my family on both sides; my mother’s family, but particularly my father’s family, were involved in the War of Independence but the tragedy that was the Civil War in my view was that it divided my family.
‘My father in 1923 was in Tin Town in the Curragh [where internees were kept] and his brother Peter was in Renmore Barracks, that had been taken over by the British as part of the National Army.
‘My other uncle was also involved in the new institutions of the State but my mother’s aunts did not take sides.
‘But dealing with the Civil War, we’re really going to have to be very honest with ourselves and I think this is going to be very challenging for us.
‘In a way, I suppose, and this is one of those long answers to your questions, but the 1916 Commemoration in 2016 has in fact set us up and was a good exercise in ethical remembering.
‘Therefore what has happened in 2016 will help us but I believe myself that the War of Independence and very particularly the Civil War will be far more challenging and may be in fact more raw than this was, but we have to do it.
‘We have to do it for the very simple reason; you don’t ignore the past but you don’t allow any aspect of the past to stifle you in the present and very particularly to block your future opportunities.’