History repeating in centenary commemorations controversy

Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley

History has a habit of repeating itself. And when it comes to commemorating centenaries, Official Ireland – and Official Galway – doesn’t learn from past mistakes.

In 2016, there was uproar locally over CIÉ’s refusal to return a plaque, which celebrates local 1916 Easter Rising hero, Éamonn Ceannt, to the façade of the wall outside the city centre train station that’s named after him.

And who could forget the furore over Galway County Council’s plans to commemorate Patrick Whelan? He was Galway’s only 1916 Rising fatality; he was also a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and so you could see how only celebrating a policeman who was shot and killed by Irish Volunteers, might be controversial.

In 2020, the then Mayor of Galway, Mike Cubbard, took a stand to boycott the planned national commemoration for RIC men and Dublin Metropolitan Police who died during the War of Independence.

Have we learned from these incidents? Have we heck!

On Saturday, the Crane Bar off Sea Road, played host to The Irish War of Independence Galway Centenary Conference, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of when the truce was signed. Organised by military historian, Damien Quinn, it heard from 12 speakers, all experts in different aspects of that period in our history.

It was the sort of event Galway City Council could and should have proudly supported but didn’t.

Some individual councillors supported it. Mayor of Galway, Cllr Colette Connolly (Ind) launched it. Fianna Fáil councillor John Connolly was one of the speakers and gave an account of ‘The killing of Father Griffin’. Labour Councillor Niall McNelis also spoke and introduced the conference . . . he even donated €200 to cover some costs.

But the City Council Executive ignored it; the local authority gave no money and no other form of support.

In total, it cost about €700; much of this involved making a ‘digital book’ from recordings of the contributions. The Council ignored repeated requests for support, including a first approach in February.

We’re told that the City Council, in conjunction with the Galway City Creative Ireland Team, including the Council’s Heritage Officer, Jim Higgins, has developed the Decade of Centenaries programme. But unlike many other local authorities, they didn’t use an Open Call process to invite ideas from the public and community groups.

Our shared history belongs to the people, and yet City Hall, in its wisdom, excluded people from decisions on how and what was going to be commemorated. Will they continue to ignore the public for the upcoming Civil War centenary?

(Photo: Mayor of Galway, Colette Connolly, with Mick Crehan of the Crane Bar, military historian Damien Quinn, and Councillor Niall McNelis ahead of last weekend’s War of Independence conference. Galway City Council did not support it).
This is a shortened preview version of Bradley Bytes. To read more, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.