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President Michael D Higgins has recalled the sacking of Balbriggan as a \u201cdefining episode\u201d in the War of Independence.<\/p>\nPresident Michael D Higgins has recalled the sacking of Balbriggan as a \u201cdefining episode\u201d in the War of Independence.<\/p>\n
More than 50 homes and businesses were burned in the north Co Dublin town and two men killed on September 20th, 1920 following the killing of two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officers.<\/p>\n
On the centenary of the night of chaos, Mr Higgins said the ferocity of events were aimed to \u201cinstil fear\u201d but instead galvanized support for the struggle which ultimately led to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1921.<\/p>\n
Mr Higgins had been due to attend centenary events in Balbriggan on Sunday but these were scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
The President instead released his thoughts in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, as we remember the bloody violence that occurred in Balbriggan exactly a century ago, violence that would result in tragedy, widespread suffering, and lingering bitterness, we must strive to do so ethically and responsibly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch an ethical remembering must refuse any kind of conscious or unconscious amnesia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exercise in remembering must be open to all perspectives, requires us all, each of us, to summon up our shared humanity, a humanity which was tested, often brutalized, but also magnified during the War of Independence and indeed over the longer revolutionary period.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Higgins said to forgive \u201cis not to forget\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cForgiving enables us to come to terms with the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf forgiveness and forgetting did not exist, we would be trapped in the past where every previous action would be irrevocable and where the present is dominated, burdened even, by preceding events and memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecognition of the act committed, however, is essential.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is only through such forms of ethical remembering that we can avoid retreating to the blinding categories of censure or denunciation, or indeed revenge and bitterness, that blighted this island for so long.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us all continue with, indeed embrace, the new beginning that the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement represented as we continue to carve out our peaceful co-existence on the island of Ireland through a genuine democratic dialogue grounded in respect for our communities\u2019 identities and their lawful traditions, recognizing and paying tribute to John Hume\u2019s vision of a shared island at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n