The dead are owed the truth
By Mary Nelis
I heard the news of the car crash in Paris as I was sitting in
bed reading an excellent book by Patrick Campbell, called Death
in Templecrone.
It is an account of the Famine years in North west Donegal and
the author describes how he accidentally discovered the effect of
the Famine in the parish into which he was born some 80 years
later. He describes the problems researching the book, and how
little knowledge there was of the victims who died at the time
and who now lie in unmarked graves; the location of most of them
is long forgotten.
Now past my sleep, I listened to the BBC as they related every
detail of the tragic accident and I recalled the words of
Voltaire, ``to the living I owe respect but to the dead the
truth''.
Will the truth about Sunday morning's deaths, as with the famine
dead, ever really be known? The truth about the famine in Ireland
is still not acknowledged by the British government or the
imperialist establishment. Many of those in the aristocracy are
the direct descendants of those involved in Ireland during the
last century.
The limited accounts of that dark period of Irish history are
only now emerging in the works of Thomas Gallagher, Aengus O
Snodaigh and Patrick Campbell and in the many groups of people
who 150 years after Black 47 are campaigning for a more open
analysis of Ireland's past history. The debate as to whether the
two million who died was genocide on the part of the British,
will continue until the British acknowledge that their political
and economic occupation of Ireland not only contributed to the
deaths by starvation and disease of millions of Irish but also to
the destruction of their culture and identity.
It was Solzhenitsyn who said that ``to forget the past is to lose
both eyes''. Many indeed have lost both eyes, not only by
forgetting the past but inherently in the present.
Uncovering the truth about the famine in Ireland may well help us
to uncover the truth about contemporary famines in Ethiopia,
Rwanda, Zaire, Korea, the Sudan, Mexico, India. It may also help
to put into perspective the world media reaction to the deaths of
three people in Paris and their inaction, with a few notable
exceptions, to the 14 million children alone who die each year
from starvation and disease. The deaths of these children rarely
make headline news. The media do not ask us to mourn this
obscenity. There are no calls for public holidays, books of
condolence, floral tributes or donations in lieu to the Royal
Family. Flags will not fly at half mast for these children but
then they didn't fly at half mast for the children murdered by
plastic bullets, fired by the soldiers of regiments of which the
late Diana was patron.
The media have gone into overdrive to reveal every detail about
the accident and people have been summoned from every corner of
the globe to recount their shock, sorrow etc. They have even told
us that prior to her death, she was dining, in the manner of most
millionaires, at the Ritz Hotel, which was owned by the Al Fayed
family. Nothing has changed much in over 100 years. The rich and
famous of this generation eat as well now as they did then and
children starve now, as they did then.
In 1847, while the people of Templecrone died in their hovels and
were buried in holes in the ground, the rich and famous were
dining at Buckingham Palace.
The London Times gave a detailed account of the thousands who,
attended and the luxury of it all. The meals were served on gold
plates and consisted of salmon, veal, pheasant, shrimp, sides of
beef, lamb and venison.
The Times didn't report the dreadful events in Ireland but then,
as now, the truth owed to the dead will only be told if it suits
the interests of the ruling class.
Investigative journalism and journalists are an endangered
species. The events in Paris have exposed the contradictions and
pretence of those in the media who project themselves as
guardians of the nation's morality, exposing the arrogant, the
powerful and the sanctimonious. It would indeed be a brave
journalist who would halt the trend, already begun, towards the
elevation of Diana to sainthood. Or what journalist would
honestly state that the deaths of those tragically killed in
Paris are but a symptom of a greedy consumerist, political
economic system, as represented by the class to which they all
belonged?
Diana in death, as in life, is being moulded by the media for
immortality. Her memory, like that of Elvis, will live on.
Meanwhile out of respect for those who are really alive, we will
continue the search for the truth of those who die, unreported by
the world's press, but sincerely mourned by those who really love
them.
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