I may have to turn in my “Irish” card

**Posted by Phineas

My ancestors left Ireland to escape oppressive tyrants, so I can well imagine what they’d be thinking now at hearing the news that an Irish city wants to erect a statue to murderous tyrant Che Guevara:

A major and innovative monument to the Irish-Argentinean revolutionary, guerilla, doctor, writer, and politician Ernesto β€˜Che’ Guevara, has taken a step closer to becoming a reality this week.

The Galway Advertiser understands that City Hall’s arts officer James Harrold will commission a scale model of the proposed monument to be made. This will then be presented to the Galway City Council’s Working Group on Public Arts for consideration, and later city manager Joe O’Neill for final approval. The approval of city councillors may also need to be sought.

The idea to erect a monument to Che Guevara comes from a proposal made by Labour councillor Billy Cameron, an ardent admirer of the revolutionary, that a monument be erected in Galway and that the project be undertaken in conjunction with the Cuban and Argentinean embassies to Ireland.

The proposed monument has been designed by Simon McGuinness and it is understood that it will feature the iconic image of Che created by the Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, commonly seen on posters and T-shirts.

Pardon me while I hurl. Billy Cameron is either an ignorant fool, or he approves of Guevara’s crimes. Regardless, he’s a disgrace. Here’s an example of the man Galway would honor:

β€œWhen you saw the beaming look on Che’s face as the victims were tied to the stake and blasted apart by the firing squad,” said a former Cuban political prisoner Roberto Martin-Perez, to your humble servant here, β€œyou saw there was something seriously, seriously wrong with Che Guevara.” As commander of the La Cabana execution yard, Che often shattered the skull of the condemned man (or boy) by firing the coup de grace himself. When other duties tore him away from his beloved execution yard, he consoled himself by viewing the slaughter. Che’s second-story office in Havana’s La Cabana prison had a section of wall torn out so he could watch his darling firing-squads at work.

Hey! I’ve got an idea for Cameron and the other Galway commissars councilors! Don’t stop with Che Guevara, honor his soul mates, too: Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Josef Stalin, Nicolae Ceaucescu, and Kim Jong-Il! Why, there are so many you could build an entire park dedicated to psychopathic, murdering bast… er… “gentlemen.”

Go ahead. Cover your city in glory. Idiots.

I’ll leave the last word (and a hat tip) to Fausta:

There should be no room in a beautiful city like Galway, in a free country like Ireland, to honor a mass murdering sociopathic racist Communist whose aim in life was to destroy the very freedoms and rights the Irish have struggled so hard to attain throughout their history. To build this monument, with the aim of making it a tourist attraction, is an insult to the very ideals of the Irish nation and the city of Galway.

Exactly.

UPDATE: No PasarΓ‘n is incensed.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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