Sinn Féin blasts 'offensive' Government plan to commemorate birth of William the Conqueror
A PLAN TO commemorate the first Norman king of England William the Conqueror 1,000 years on from his birth has been met with dismay from Sinn Féin.
Describing the announcement as 'offensive', Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said it beggared belief given the 'legacy of William's successors invading and subjugating Ireland in the name of his English crown', with the Normans responsible for '900 years of occupation' in Ireland.
The
plan was announced today
by Housing and Heritage Minister James Browne, who said the Normans 'left their mark in monumental ways' as he announced that organisations can now submit projects for the 2027 commemoration.
The Normans, who landed in Wexford's Bannow Bay in 1169, were responsible for the foundation of many Irish towns and the 'European Year of the Normans' proposes exhibitions, live performances, cross-border artistic residencies, re-enactments, student exchanges and more.
However, Ó Snodaigh slammed Browne's plan as amounting to 'scraping the barrel of colonialism, imperialism and English royalism' for the sake of 'themed tourism'.
While Ó Snodaigh said we should 'take pride in the rich architectural, cultural, and literary heritage' of Anglo-Norman Ireland, the party draws the line at focusing the commemoration around England's first Norman king.
In a statement tonight, the Dublin South Central TD referred back to Fine Gael's aborted 2020 plan to mark the Black and Tans.
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'Only a short time has passed since Fine Gael tried to commemorate the Black and Tans, and now Fianna Fáil is trying to go further by dedicating an entire year in celebration of 1,000 years since the birth of William the Conqueror,' said Ó Snodaigh, who is the party's spokesperson for Gaeilge, Gaeltacht, Arts and Culture.
What will they think of next: A Festival of Cromwell? A Famine Queen Jubilee?
Ó Snodaigh said that William himself was a 'foreign king who never set foot in Ireland, and had nothing to do with Ireland,' but in spite of this his birth will be 'given a higher honour than bestowed by an Irish Government on any figure from Gaelic Irish history'.
He blasted the government for letting recent anniversaries pass by 'with little more than a whimper', referencing the recent 1500th anniversary of the birth of Ireland's patron saint Colmcille.
Similarly, Ó Snodaigh said the '900th anniversary of the founding of the first settlement of Galway by the legendary High King Toirdhealbhach Mór Ua Conchobhair' went unmarked 'officially by any organ of the State'.
'The website of the Normandy region behind the Millenium celebrations clearly states that 2027 was chosen as the year of 'Normans, People of Europe' to mark the millennium of the birth of William the Conqueror,' Ó Snodaigh said.
He accepted that there was a plan for tourism behind the commemoration plan, but said that celebrating England's William the Conqueror is simply a 'step too far'.
'This is not a commemoration for Ireland. Marking the birth of a future English king is not for us, even if it was 1,000 years ago. Rather we should always be remembering those great figures of Ireland's past who actually lived here and contributed positively to our island story, celebrating our Irish history and identity, and the links that stretch before the Norman invasion: the Gaels' place in Europe.'
The Dublin TD pointed to 'brave Irish heroes of Norman descent' who rebelled against England, listing out the Desmond Rebellion of the 1360s through to 'United Irishman Lord Edward Fitzgerald, in whose Leinster House our Dáil now meets'.
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