HOW PLANS TO COMMEMORATE THE RIC FELL APART
JULY 12, 2018:
THE Expert Advisory Committee on Centenary Commemorations provides a guidance document to support the State’s approach to the remembrance of significant historical events.
APRIL 3, 2019:
MEETING of All-Party Consultation Group on Commemorations where, according to Senator Mark Daly, the discussion about carving the names of Black and Tans and Auxiliaries who died in the War of Independence is discussed.
JANUARY 1, 2020:
THE Irish Times reports that the Government is to commemorate the RIC and Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) at Dublin Castle on January 17.
JANUARY 2, 2020:
CULTURE Minister Josepha Madigan releases details of the ‘Decade of Centenaries programme for 2020’. It does not mention the RIC commemoration.
JANUARY 5, 2020:
LEO VARADKAR says he is ‘disappointed to hear some people are going to boycott the event’.
JANUARY 6, 2020:
UNDATED invitations are delivered to all members of the Oireachtas inviting them to the commemoration. Invitations to other invitees were reportedly sent out before Christmas, and to council mayors on January 3.
JANUARY 6, 2020:
JUSTICE Flanagan Minister issues a Charlie statement saying: ‘As part of the Decade of Centenaries (2012-2023), under the guidance of the Expert Advisory Group on Centenary Commemoration, I, on behalf of the Government, will host an event to commemorate the place of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police in Irish History.’
JANUARY 7, 2020:
IRISH historian and member of the Expert Advisory Group Diarmaid Ferriter says the EAG did not recommend the planned event.
JANUARY 7, 2020:
MICHEáL MARTIN describes the commemoration as an ‘error in judgement’ that is ‘not the appropriate vehicle to explore such complex themes’.
JANUARY 7, 2020:
MR FLANAGAN ‘defers’
the commemoration following pressure from politicians and the public.
JANUARY 10, 2020
MR VARADKAR declines to comment when asked about renewed success of the rebel song Come Out Ye Black And Tans in the iTunes music charts, or the prospect of having the deferred commemoration before the general election saying: ‘I’ve no more to say on that than I’ve already said.’