If someone made a similar monument which was inscribed with messages smuggled into and out of Elmira Prison in New York by Confederate prisoners of war during the American Civil War, would there be such an uproar? How about if instead it was Union prisoners passing messages into and out of Andersonville? Both saw mortality rate in excess of 25%.

The dead are dead. They cannot hurt anyone any more. But we need to remember why they fought. We need to understand what anger and pain and desperation and pride can do, not just to “them”, but also to “us”. We need to find the merit in the words and deeds of our “enemies”, so that the next time such words are spoken, we listen and speak, and find a mutual solution before more people start killing and dying.

War is not black and white, and no one side is ever innocent or pure. Arguing over who committed the bigger attrocities doesn’t solve anything. Eventually, there must be an end. Eventually there must be forgiveness and acceptance. Otherwise all that we end up with is forgetfulness, and then afterward, repetition.

“I wish the content (of the piece in the Luan Gallery) didn’t exist but the content is part of the historical record. … A lot of those cigarette papers and small bits of paper that were smuggled in and out of the prison are now in the collection of the national archives.”

But irrespective of quality, the claim that art should not be political is prima facie ludicrous.

(Disclaimer: I don’t care enough to have an opinion on the artistic merits of this specific piece.)

And the 90s were a rather different time for the Irish. They’d be right to take down their divisive, jingoistic banners and move forward.

In any struggle for independence you need both people who are prepared to talk and people who are prepared to fight on both sides. Neither emerges with its honour intact but each has those who try to act with dignity. The historical struggle was between the native Irish and the British Empire. The British Empire was not going to withdraw from a colony so near home simply by strength of argument. To have withdrawn completely would have created a serious crisis of confidence for the Empire if it was seen to be so vulnerable so close to home. This is the end of a struggle which had potentially global repercussions. The history of the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East might be very different if the Irish had not conceded to division and had forced a British withdrawal. It was a bitter struggle with a lot at stake. It is always left for subsequent generations to try to make sense of any agreement and the Irish state seems to have succeeded better than Fine Gael.
This has as much to do with the historical antagonism between Fine Gael and the IRA as it does with any particular acts of violence.

I am suspect of anyone that tries to bury history in any format, leaving only heroes, and unknown terrorist murderers.

Although entirely different, it looks as solemn and unobtrusively immovable as the memorial honouring those lost in the US/Vietnam war.

Such a thing tends only to acknowledge not glorify. There are always heroes on any side of any conflict of numbers, only a few seek glory and that is well understood, which is why many memorials or artworks regarding conflicts are rendered thus.

The artist may believe the words are worth reading but that is not the same as saying he is endorsing the acts that they refer to.

Here is a video of the artist speaking after the meeting
http://www.youtube.com/embed/nF9ELBgFhAM

Well yea, when you take a message and literally carve it in stone, you’re endorsing it about as hard as possible.  I agree with the councilor this art is political and inflammatory.  But I also think that’s what art *should* be.

(rewind to start of song for the historical background)

Do the messages make the IRA look like savages that deserved whatever treatment they got? 

That’s the problem with censorship, I suppose.  These questions are never even asked, much less answered.

Cllr Gabrielle McFadden also of Fine Gael supported Cllr Cooney saying that public galleries should not show politically contentious art.

ART OF PUPPIES ONLY. CENTRIST PUPPIES

I should think in making comparisons with the Nazi regime they should be more careful about public scrutiny of their own procedural regime.  Looks more than a little similar.