DUP member wants interpretive centre plans dropped
Friday, 21 November 2008
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A DUP assembly member has told Senator Cecilia Keaveney to drop any plans for an interpretive centre at a British Army base in his constituency.
Ballykinlar, County Down, is the site of a post-Easter Rising internment camp - where former Taoiseach Sean Lemass and Senator Keaveney's grandfather, James, were both interned.
Speaking in the Seanad, Donegal Senator Keaveney said a small interpretive centre at Ballykinlar, perhaps in a reconstructed hut, could help teach young people about Irish history and how to learn from the past.
She has asked the Republic's minister for arts, sport and tourism, Martin Cullen, to explore the Ballykinlar possibility with his British counterpart.
But DUP assembly member, Jim Wells, said Senator Keaveney could commemorate all she liked in the Republic but should not try and dictate to the British authorities.
The British government had always treated prisoners with humanity, he said.
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Cecilia Keaveney in no way wishes to dictate to anyone - she is not from that type or school of politics! Our past has influenced our present and if people are not big enough to look to that past to help us learn from it how to have a better future, then we are going nowhere. We all have to grow in understanding of both ourselves and "the other". This project should therefore not be threatening to anyone. Senator Cecilia Keaveney
Posted by cecilia keaveney | 22.12.08, 17:58 GMT
Jim Wells is forgetting that the Easter Rising was an important episode in British History as it marked a pivotal point in the break up of what was then the United Kingdom.
The secession of the southern part of Ireland was of huge historical significance for Britain and particularly for NI.
That's why is should be commemorated and interpreted, so that people like Jim Wells understand
Posted by Free thinker | 22.11.08, 11:04 GMT
Again the knee-jerk sectarian "No Surrender" attitude...the South has created an interpretive center at the site of the Battle of the Boyne to facilitate learning and understanding for all sides, and by all accounts, Unionists have been happy with it.
I think Jim Wells must be one of the Affrikaaner wing of DUP extremists we discussed recently, and rejects out of hand anything with a Southern dimention.
Posted by Willie | 21.11.08, 16:48 GMT