Family of republican martyr Peadar Clancy clashes with Sinn Féin over use of his name

3 comments
  1. It’s an interesting one people claiming historical figures. At what stage do the family have no say? A line has to be drawn surely.

    It’s like the English using Seamus Heaney to celebrate 100 years of the North and his family going ape.

  2. Who owns usage of a name and how it is honoured? The latest iteration of the party a man put himself forward for as a candidate, or the latest iteration of the relations he never met (grandchildren and great grand children).

    I can see both sides and perhaps no one does.
    They can each honour him in their own ways.

    There could be a compromise where assurances are given his name won’t be used in connection with policies, or perhaps they can put a plaque up and pick another historical figure. My guess is SF may worry after this that doing so would start another round of relations disagreeing. Two or three generations down is usually a wide group.

    I imagine this type of naming might be common without the public viewing historical names as drivers of later policy; but if it was me I might prefer to keep a non political ancestor out of politics. A difficulty here is they are seeking to remove him from it but views should certainly be considered.

  3. Most the family don’t want the name used. Some are fianna fail people and some hate fianna fail. Same in terms of sinn fein. Just change the name.

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