Pretend It Didn't Happen

In a few short years, Ireland will be celebrating its centennial, an anniversary that calls for some sort of fuss to be made.

While those in charge put together a roster of activities and pace out walking tours for the tourists, Minister of State Dinny McGinley would like the young nation to officially pretend that most of what happened didn't happen.

The 1916 Easter Rising was a violent affair. There's no denying that blood was shed. Mr. McGinley has made it known that he doesn't want to commemorate the fighting. He'd much prefer that Ireland celebrate its one hundredth birthday by talking up the traditional culture.

By making the GPO a tourist attraction in conjunction with the big day, it would be rather difficult to get around the fact that the building is important for something other than An Post.

Using one's imagination, it's possible to think of Frank McCourt in relation to the Irish postal system. Then again, perhaps not. Angela's Ashes is just a reminder of the disaster that was Ireland post-rebellion, and there's no romance to be found there.

Forget the battles and the bloodshed, as Mr. McGinley would prefer. Focus on Ireland's contribution to the world's culture.

Skip over Oscar Wilde. He was a disgrace.

Don't get into W.B. Yeats. He supported the rebel movement and that reminds us all of fighting and we're trying to forget the unpleasant side of rebellion.

And don't invite Colm Toibin to speak about modern writers like John McGahern. At the opening of the John McGahern International Seminar and Summer School, Mr. Toibin noted that the late author was a victim of an over-reaching Catholic Church.

Indeed, when Mr. McGahern was sacked after writing a novel that the priests did not approve, everyone should have woken up from their long, incense-infused slumber and realized that the bishops held too much power and the cowed Irish government did nothing to protect the rights of the people.

Hardly something to celebrate when you're telling the visitors about the glories of freedom won from the Brits.

All in all, it might be more appealing to showcase the bravery of the few who took up arms...and pens... Who risked their lives...and livelihoods...in a series of brutal battles that are not quite fully ended.

Did you not hear the sounds of battle rise up out of the Dail just the other day, when An Taoiseach Enda Kenny beat down the Vatican with the evidence of the Cloyne Report?