Acts of respectful, inclusive remembering
Blog reflecting on the Prince of Wales' recent visit to Ireland
Some weeks back, my wife, Greta, and I had the pleasure of accompanying the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall during their visit to Ireland. It was our second time being in Ireland with Their Royal Highnesses, having been in Clare, Galway and Sligo with them in 2015.
On that occasion, the highlight was their emotional visit to the village of Mullaghmore, where the Prince's Great-Uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979. During that visit, they also paid tribute to the poet, W.B. Yeats, on the 150th anniversary of his birth by visiting his grave at Drumcliffe Church near Sligo.
This, their third visit to Ireland in two years (they were in Donegal in 2016), took in three Irish counties, Dublin, Kilkenny and Kildare. In Kilkenny, the Prince, who was hosted there by our Foreign Minister, Charlie Flanagan, tried his hand at hurling, our wonderful Irish game dominated in recent years by the hurlers of Kilkenny, and visited that city's impressive Castle. At the Curragh, the Prince visited our training facility for UN Peacekeepers. Peacekeeping is an area in which Ireland has a proud track record stretching back to the late 1950s.
During the Dublin leg of his visit, the Prince met our President, Michael D. Higgins, and our Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny. In welcoming the Prince and Duchess to his residence, Áras an Uachtaráin, President Higgins spoke of 'difficult and contested periods of a painful history' and of 'the deepening bonds interdependency, of trust, of respect and of friendship that now prevails between our peoples.' For his part, Prince Charles spoke of the 'palpable and very welcome trust between us' and of a belief, in Seamus Heaney's words, that 'a further shore is reachable from here.'
The point I want to dwell on here is the significance of the ceremonies that took place at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin on the final day of the visit. Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery was founded in the 19th century by the leading Irish parliamentarian and political reformer, Daniel O'Connell, whose tomb, housed in a traditional Irish round tower, is the most imposing in the cemetery.
Over the years, Glasnevin has become, in effect, Ireland's national cemetery, a place where many prominent figures from Ireland's 19th and 20th century national history are interred. During a guided walk through Glasnevin, Prince Charles stopped at the graves of two of Ireland's major 20th century political figures, Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins.
But it was the two wreath-laying ceremonies at Glasnevin that especially caught my attention. Yes, there were two separate ceremonies. The first took place at the Commonwealth War Graves' Commission Cross of Sacrifice where commemorative stones were unveiled in memory of Irish-born recipients of the Victoria Cross during World War 1.
I was glad to see the Prince, accompanied by our Arts’ Minister, Heather Humphries, lay a wreath at the Cross of Sacrifice because I remember being there in 2014 when the monument was dedicated by President Higgins and the Duke of Kent.
That occasion, when our President spoke movingly about those from Ireland who fought and died in that terrible conflict, was an important milestone on the journey of commemoration and of reconciliation on which we have been embarked this past number of years. It represented a powerful recognition that those who died on the battlefields of the Western Front occupy a respected place in our history and an acceptance that, by cherishing their memory, we in no way detract from our admiration and respect for those who fought in the Easter Rising and in the struggle for independence that followed.
The day's second wreath-laying ceremony, a mirror of the first, took place at the commemorative wall for the Easter Rising, which was erected during last year's centenary of that seminal event in Irish history. The 1916 wall is itself a model of commemorative inclusiveness for it contains the names not only of the Irish Volunteers and members of the Irish Citizen Army who were killed during the Rising, but also of the civilians who died that week as well as members of the police and British Army.
In August, I will be leaving my post as Ambassador in London. My time here has coincided with some important commemorative milestones - the Home Rule crisis of 1913-14, the outbreak of the First World War, Gallipoli, the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme.
Since 2013, I have taken part in centenary events marking all of those major developments in our overlapping histories. My aim has been to respect the complexity of our past and to remember it inclusively. I have tried to give proper acknowledgement to those who volunteered to serve in World War 1 and to those who fought in Dublin during Easter week 1916. I have viewed these parallel commemorations as an opportunity for reconciliation, for our two countries to respect our different historical experiences and perspectives while remembering shared sacrifices.
It was for me a memorable experience to see the Prince of Wales lay wreaths at two monuments in close proximity to each other at Glasnevin Cemetery in what Minister Charlie Flanagan called an 'act of respectful memory' as both our countries 'seek to manage contemporary challenges in changing times.'
Daniel Mulhall is Ireland's Ambassador in London