DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) An Irish cardinal criticised the idea of using violence to achieve a united Ireland. But Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, also insisted that the goal of uniting Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic remains a "legitimate and still noble ideal." He also said that peace in Northern Ireland is a fitting tribute to the men who gave their lives in the Irish revolution of 1916, known as the Easter Rising.
Cardinal Brady spoke May 6 at the annual commemoration Mass at Dublin’s Arbour Hill cemetery, where the executed leaders of the Easter Rising are buried. Among those present at the Mass were Irish President Mary McAleese and other senior government representatives.
The Mass commemorated the execution of 14 leaders of the 1916 rebellion when Irish Republicans seized many key government buildings and sought to gain independence from Britain. While initially unsuccessful, the rising precipitated the Irish War of Independence that led the British to grant independence to the 26 southern counties of Ireland five years later. The remaining six northern counties became known as Northern Ireland and remain part of Britain.
"In my view, the only true inheritors of the executed leaders of the Easter Rising are those who are fully committed to the will of the Irish people and their definitive support for the ideals and institutions of the Good Friday Agreement," Cardinal Brady said.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was signed by the Irish and British governments and the political representatives of Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic communities; it committed all parties to achieving their goals by purely peaceful means.
Cardinal Brady insisted that "the tiny numbers of people who continue to use or threaten violence as a means of achieving a united Ireland bring shame on that legitimate and still noble ideal."
"The Irish people have spoken, they have said a historic and definitive ‘no’ to the misery, mayhem and futility of violence as (a) means of achieving a united Ireland," he told the congregation, which included descendants of the executed volunteers.
He appealed to "anyone who may be tempted to resort to violence in the name of Irish freedom, especially those too young to remember the tragic waste of life, limb and economic opportunity to respect the sovereign will of the Irish people."
Cardinal Brady also described as "an offense to the ideals of the Easter Proclamation" the recent murder of two British soldiers and a policeman. Issued during the Easter Rising, the proclamation declared Irish independence from Great Britain.
"Like many inhumane acts of violence before them in the Troubles, they were unjustified (and) morally repugnant," he said.
"We remember those who died for Ireland’s freedom in 1916; we also remember, with sorrow, all those who died, through violence, in the tragic history of this island," Cardinal Brady said.
