As Professor of Modern History in UCD, Diarmaid Ferriter is Ireland's best known historian. He's also on an advisory committee for the upcoming 2016 Easter Rising commemorations. Speaking in the new issue of Hot Press he hits out government suggestions that British royalty would be invited over to take part.
"This was a typical rush of blood to the head of senior civil servants, who were intoxicated on the peace process," says Professor Ferriter. "That’s not in any way belittling the importance of the peace process, far from it. But they had decided that Anglo-Irish relations are now so good that the cherry on the cake would be the return of a British royal for 2016. So they stitched it into the speech of Michael D. Higgins when he was over in Britain in April. That was the first that anybody had heard of it – including, of course, our group, and that raises another issue for me."
Ferriter continues to outline the reasons why he considers it to be a bad idea.
"It’s not appropriate in the sense that what you’re marking in 2016 is the declaration of an Irish republic in 1916. It’s the very antithesis of a monarchy, and for all of the improvements in Anglo-Irish relations, we can’t ignore the very difficult history between the two countries. So that’s one part; the other part is that that becomes the focus, it creates exclusion, it creates a security lockdown if they were to have a prominent role. And it annoys people. People in a general way might say, 'Oh, come on – get over yourself!' and I can see their perspective that it is healthy for the two countries, but not for this kind of thing."
For more on his take on the controversy, as well The Boston College oral project, U2 and Ferriter's life, pick up the new issue of Hot Press, on sale now.