The opening of a Home Rule exhibition focusing on unionism at Glasnevin Cemetery museum, Dublin, was described yesterday by Minister for Heritage Jimmy Deenihan as a symbol of the length of the road travelled since tumultuous days.
Opening The Third Home Rule Crisis,the Unionist Response, the Minister said the Decade of Centenaries project was to build understanding of the context surrounding events, including the first World War, the 1916 Rising, the workers’ rights movement and the fight for women’s suffrage.
"I very much appreciate my continuing partnership in commemorations with Ministers at the Northern Ireland Office,'' he said. "I also appreciate the co-operation and mutual support that we have with MPs and Assembly members.''
He said it had been suggested that John Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party underestimated the strength of Ulster's opposition to Home Rule until it was too late to reach a compromise. "We may never know if compromise would have been achievable but I think that everyone here will agree that the Ulster Volunteers did not view the prospect that they might be forced to take up arms, possibly even against crown forces, lightly,'' he said.
It was right, Mr Deenihan said, that the men of the 36th Ulster division should be remembered throughout Ireland with the same respect that was due to the 10th and 16th Irish divisions.
