Posted on 10/15/2001 5:10:43 AM PDT by Valin
DUBLIN, Ireland -- Some 15,000 people filled Dublin's streets Sunday as flag-draped coffins bearing long-dead independence fighters passed slowly by, bound for a lavish state funeral in Ireland's most hallowed ground. "The Irish state today is discharging a debt of honor that stretches back 80 years," Prime Minister Bertie Ahern declared in Glasnevin Cemetery, where riflemen fired volleys over all 10 caskets.
The ceremony capped a five-hour procession from Mountjoy Prison, where Britain hanged and buried the men during the 1919-21 war of independence. Nine were reburied Sunday in Glasnevin near Irish statesmen and rebel leaders of centuries past, while a 10th was to be reburied later this week in his native County Limerick to grant his dying wish.
Rain-dampened crowds applauded the convoy of hearses, flanked by brass bands and soldiers with assault rifles. Police estimated 7,000 gathered along the capital's broadest thoroughfare, O'Connell Street. Several thousand more broke into cheers as the coffins passed through the front gates of Glasnevin. Hundreds of thousands watched the event live on state television.
Speakers at the funeral tried to draw a distinction between the members of the 1920s-era Irish Republican Army honored Sunday and the Provisional IRA, which was formed in 1969 and whose refusal to disarm has threatened peace efforts in Northern Ireland.
From their coffin-side pulpits and podiums, politicians and Roman Catholic church leaders argued that the original IRA had been right to fight to achieve today's Republic of Ireland, but today's Provisional IRA must renounce any option it holds for resuming violence in Northern Ireland, where Protestants cling to a British identity.
"A united Ireland remains a legitimate and a noble ideal," said retired Cardinal Cahal Daly, who delivered the sermon for a requiem service at St. Mary's Cathedral near O'Connell Street. "But the people of this island have repudiated physical force or coercion as a means to attain it."
Among 1,200 people packed into the pews were Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, leaders of the modern Sinn Fein party and alleged former commanders of the Provisional IRA.
Daly, a longtime critic of their campaign, alluded to the Provisional IRA's refusal to begin disarming in support of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace pact and the joint Protestant-Catholic government it forged. Protestants are planning to withdraw Wednesday from the 22-month-old coalition, forcing its collapse in protest at the IRA position.
"The only legitimate struggle in Northern Ireland has been, and is, an unarmed struggle for justice, equality and human rights for both of its political traditions," Daly said.
The cardinal's appeal coincided with an opinion poll indicating overwhelming public support for Provisional IRA disarmament.
© 2001 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press / TwinCities.com- All Rights Reserved copyright information
It is rather ironic that he can say these words in the Republic of Ireland precisely because men used physical force to attain it.
fighting on your own land to rebuke that which is forced upon you is not terrorism. Just another group of patriots trying to push back the Empire in their nation
High upon the gallows tree
Kevin Barry gave his young life
For the cause of liberty
Just a lad of eighteen summers
Yet there's no one can deny
As he walked to death that morning
He proudly held his head on high . . .
The author seems to think that a terrorist in a suit or elected isn't still a terrorist!
McGuinness was recently reported as being the new Chief of Staff of those who kill innocent civilians, Bin Laden style.
"This State has abolished the death penalty, and lives by the rule of law. There is neither need nor excuse for the extrajudicial use of force by anyone today"
The governments in London and Dublin have a duty to protect the people in the UK and Ireland from all the activities of the terrorists: mafiaism, nazism, etc.
Ahern and his FF party are going into an election in the near future. The last result they want is one that could lead to a coalition with a terrorist group, Sinn Fein/IRA.
Sinn Fein/IRA supports abortion so perhaps the reburial of the bodies of the volunteers and the holding of a referendum on abortion are intended to minimise support for the terrorist group.
The original IRA were much like the early patriots of America and nothing like the IRA of today.
His victims were three unarmed soldiers collecting bread from a Dublin bakery:
15-year-old soldier Harold Washington of the 2nd Battalion, Prince of Wales Regiment, thought to have been an orphan.
Thomas Humphries, 19, son of Sarah Humphries, a widow of Salford.
Marshall Whitehead, 20, son of Alice Whitehead, a widow of Halifax.
As Illbay put it: "one man's patriot is another man's terrorist."
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