"Bomber priest not a surprise" - the
Pearse mosaic controversy
Patrick Pearse was one of the leaders of the Easter
Rising in Dublin in 1916. The rebellion failed and Pearse was executed
by the British. Many Irish regard Pearse as a hero.
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From the Irish Independent Letters Page
(http://www.independent.ie)
Saturday 28 August 2010
"IT is no surprise to me that police intelligence has identified
a priest, Fr James Chesney, as director of the local IRA planting
bombs in Claudy, Co Derry, in 1972.
In
Galway Cathedral there is a mosaic of Pearse next to Jesus Christ,
so Pearse is a role model to be followed by a Christian with republican
leanings. Pearse said such things as, "Irish hate of the English
is a holy passion".
Pearse said, in praising O'Donovan Rossa, "for the English
he had a hatred that was tinctured with contempt. He looked on them
as an inferior race".
In December 1915, Pearse wrote: "Heroism has come back to
the world ... it is good for the world that such things should be
done. The old heart of the Earth needed to be warmed with the red
wine of the battlefields. Such august homage was never before offered
to God as this, the homage of millions of lives given gladly for
love of country."
When people put the love of country above the love of God and replace
the Ten Commandments with oaths that require blind obedience, the
worst atrocities are committed.
I think no Christian can be a Christian if he hates his neighbours
and plants bombs in streets to kill innocents.
Irish nationalism is a malignant mutation of race and religion
and Pearse's mosaic next to the mosaic of Jesus in Galway Cathedral
is a visible expression of this."
Stephen Fallon
Limerick
(The photo is from travelwebshots.com)
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