Ben M is a Slugger reader from Dublin…
“Sinn Féin, the main opposition party, said the commemoration was offensive because it would honour William the Conqueror, England’s first Norman king, and the subjugation inflicted by his successors.
“What will they think of next: a festival of Cromwell? A Famine Queen jubilee?” said the party’s culture spokesperson, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, referencing Oliver Cromwell’s bloody 17th-century conquests and Queen Victoria’s reign during the 1840s famine.”
This was SF’s reaction to the Irish government’s announcement this week to join a European cultural initiative called ‘2027 European Year of the Normans’, organised by the The Normandy Regional Council in France.
Do you know what they could have said instead?
“We welcome this opportunity to examine the rich and sometimes challenging contributions of the Normans to Irish history. Like the Vikings, medieval Old English, and the Anglo-Irish, who were once separate polities in Ireland, and are all today part of the one Irish nation, they have lessons to teach us about the constitutional future of this island.”
Do you see what I did there? Turned this into a win for the pro-unity side, where they get to tie the Norman’s story into a winning argument for unification.
Instead, SF gave us a pity party that wins no one over to anything and does zilch for the pro-unity cause. It alienates Unionists, and does nothing to win over the middle-ground border poll deciders.
This is a guest slot to give a platform for new writers either as a one off, or a prelude to becoming part of the regular Slugger team.
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