Post by Harry on Jun 23, 2008 12:03:32 GMT
I've no idea of the ins and outs of this. It makes an interesting read and the person involved should be ashamed of themselves.
IT WAS no less ugly for its fleeting brevity, but an incident outside a
New York church honouring victims of September 11 served as a reminder
that 3,000 miles is no barrier to Irish quarrels.
On Tuesday night, five officers of the Police Service of Northern
Ireland (PSNI) were told they would not be welcome at the Irish
Community Mass in Holy Trinity Church.
It was just one individual who took it on himself to offer a sign of
hatred at a most moving and sacred occasion. One of the officers, to
whom I had been talking, called me aside and said: "There might be a bit
of a problem. We have just been told we are not welcome."
The officer and his colleagues, with whom I had been speaking on first
name terms, asked that their names not be used in any newspaper article.
Alerted to a potential problem at a Mass jointly sponsored by the Consul
General of Ireland in New York, a senior Irish diplomat spoke to the
five officers.
After an exchange, two of the PSNI constables stood at the rear of the
church. After Mass, they left to join their three colleagues outside and
were driven away in an NYPD car.
The officers had been invited by Msgr Tom Leonard, who celebrated the
Mass. The Irish tenor, Ronan Tynan, sang Panis Angelicus and the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, read from the Book of the
Prophet Micah.
The PSNI officers had come from another memorial service honouring the
dead of September 11 in the Anglican cathedral, St Thomas' on Fifth Avenue.
This was an intensely moving occasion, where friends and relatives of
many of the firemen and police of Irish descent who perished a year
before were remembered and honoured.
Meeting Msgr Tom Leonard later, it seemed inappropriate to tell him of
the gross insult to himself, the PSNI officers and the friends and
relatives who offered signs of peace in the Holy Trinity Church.
It was also a slap in the face to the Irish Government and the diplomats
who have done Trojan work in securing a peace agreement in Northern Ireland.
Before the Mass, chatting outside the church, the five officers looked
dapper in the new dress uniform of the PSNI, and having buried 303
murdered RUC colleagues in the Troubles, they had more experience of
collegiate grief than the NYPD officers who accompanied them.
After the incident, the PSNI officers appeared tense and awkward, more
concerned about the potential embarrassment on an occasion designed to
comfort the grieving.
The ancient enmities of home were all the more ugly at a Mass in New
York, where one Irish bigot brought his own pristine sectarianism to an
occasion honouring the dead of 26 countries.
The total of Irish-born victims of the September 11 atrocities was
seven, although the number of dead who held dual Irish-American
citizenship runs to three figures. Some 20pc of the 2,801 who died that
day are said to have Irish ancestry.
While President Mary McAleese observed one minute's silence at
Enniskillen yesterday, the Governor of New York, George Pataki, was
preparing to deliver the Gettysburg address at Ground Zero. Seeing the
families of the dead, the grieving widows and sobbing orphans gave the
dead a living presence.
Families held up photographs of departed loved ones, and their killers
didn't discriminate between Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu, Sikh,
Buddhist, dissenters and those of no religion. It took nearly four hours
to read out the names of the 2,801 dead.
You could comfortably bury Croke Park in that enormous gouge in the
earth where the World Trade Centre (WTC) stood until a year ago.
Some 2,000 children lost a parent, and the New York Fire Department lost
343 firefighters, almost half the number of deaths-on-duty in its 100
year history.
But at the Mass dedicated to the memory of those who perished, a bigot
with peculiarly Irish prejudices shamed us all outside a Church where
they read about forgiveness from the gospel according to Matthew.
"Jesus said to his disciples: 'You have heard it said, An eye for an eye
and a tooth. But I say unto you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him
as well'."
Sam Smyth in New York
IT WAS no less ugly for its fleeting brevity, but an incident outside a
New York church honouring victims of September 11 served as a reminder
that 3,000 miles is no barrier to Irish quarrels.
On Tuesday night, five officers of the Police Service of Northern
Ireland (PSNI) were told they would not be welcome at the Irish
Community Mass in Holy Trinity Church.
It was just one individual who took it on himself to offer a sign of
hatred at a most moving and sacred occasion. One of the officers, to
whom I had been talking, called me aside and said: "There might be a bit
of a problem. We have just been told we are not welcome."
The officer and his colleagues, with whom I had been speaking on first
name terms, asked that their names not be used in any newspaper article.
Alerted to a potential problem at a Mass jointly sponsored by the Consul
General of Ireland in New York, a senior Irish diplomat spoke to the
five officers.
After an exchange, two of the PSNI constables stood at the rear of the
church. After Mass, they left to join their three colleagues outside and
were driven away in an NYPD car.
The officers had been invited by Msgr Tom Leonard, who celebrated the
Mass. The Irish tenor, Ronan Tynan, sang Panis Angelicus and the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, read from the Book of the
Prophet Micah.
The PSNI officers had come from another memorial service honouring the
dead of September 11 in the Anglican cathedral, St Thomas' on Fifth Avenue.
This was an intensely moving occasion, where friends and relatives of
many of the firemen and police of Irish descent who perished a year
before were remembered and honoured.
Meeting Msgr Tom Leonard later, it seemed inappropriate to tell him of
the gross insult to himself, the PSNI officers and the friends and
relatives who offered signs of peace in the Holy Trinity Church.
It was also a slap in the face to the Irish Government and the diplomats
who have done Trojan work in securing a peace agreement in Northern Ireland.
Before the Mass, chatting outside the church, the five officers looked
dapper in the new dress uniform of the PSNI, and having buried 303
murdered RUC colleagues in the Troubles, they had more experience of
collegiate grief than the NYPD officers who accompanied them.
After the incident, the PSNI officers appeared tense and awkward, more
concerned about the potential embarrassment on an occasion designed to
comfort the grieving.
The ancient enmities of home were all the more ugly at a Mass in New
York, where one Irish bigot brought his own pristine sectarianism to an
occasion honouring the dead of 26 countries.
The total of Irish-born victims of the September 11 atrocities was
seven, although the number of dead who held dual Irish-American
citizenship runs to three figures. Some 20pc of the 2,801 who died that
day are said to have Irish ancestry.
While President Mary McAleese observed one minute's silence at
Enniskillen yesterday, the Governor of New York, George Pataki, was
preparing to deliver the Gettysburg address at Ground Zero. Seeing the
families of the dead, the grieving widows and sobbing orphans gave the
dead a living presence.
Families held up photographs of departed loved ones, and their killers
didn't discriminate between Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu, Sikh,
Buddhist, dissenters and those of no religion. It took nearly four hours
to read out the names of the 2,801 dead.
You could comfortably bury Croke Park in that enormous gouge in the
earth where the World Trade Centre (WTC) stood until a year ago.
Some 2,000 children lost a parent, and the New York Fire Department lost
343 firefighters, almost half the number of deaths-on-duty in its 100
year history.
But at the Mass dedicated to the memory of those who perished, a bigot
with peculiarly Irish prejudices shamed us all outside a Church where
they read about forgiveness from the gospel according to Matthew.
"Jesus said to his disciples: 'You have heard it said, An eye for an eye
and a tooth. But I say unto you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him
as well'."
Sam Smyth in New York
