Sinn Fein First Minister’s Remembrance Day appearance should be applauded
While one can appreciate why some people are offended, Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein First Minister’s Remembrance Day appearance should be applauded.
Michelle O’Neill has announced that she will be the first senior Sinn Fein minister to take part in a Remembrance Day ceremony, in Belfast, on November 10, 2024.
Her decision has prompted more than 100 relatives of people who died in the so-called Troubles to write to the Irish Times, condemning it.
This is understandable; Remembrance Day and its events commemorate the contributions of British and Commonwealth military and civilian service men and women in the two World Wars – and subsequent conflicts, and the Troubles should be included among them.
But it is also true that the sacrifices of those servicepeople in wars against common enemies have helped everybody in Northern Ireland – Unionist and Republican alike – to continue to seek to enjoy their own way of life.
Ms O’Neill’s attendance is not an endorsement of any harm done by those people, but recognition that they gave their lives in the name of a better life for everybody currently living as part of the United Kingdom.
As a Republican, she wants to take Northern Ireland out of the UK and re-unify it with the Irish Republic – and it seems likely that public opinion will swing towards that, if she is wise in the timing of a referendum on that issue.
Her participation in a ceremony that commemorates people who died to protect Northern Irish citizens’ rights to such democratic processes should be praised – in This Writer’s opinion.
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there wasn’t any crime she should be applauded for it then healing