SIR – Having experience as a high-level advisor to foreign diplomats, I understand the important role an ambassador plays in representing the image of a country.
SIR – Having experience as a high-level advisor to foreign diplomats, I understand the important role an ambassador plays in representing the image of a country.
When Kevin Vickers, the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, decided to accost an Irish nationalist protester at a joint Irish-Anglo state memorial in Dublin, Ireland to remember British soldiers who died during Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising, he broke the number one rule of being a diplomat: Don’t start problems.
An event involving commemorating British soldier casualties during the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland is likely to go over about as well as a German World War II Veterans’ Memorial being held in Israel. Attendance at such an event is likely to invite controversy, without benefit to Canada.
Note to Canada’s diplomats, next time you get an invite like this remember these words: The Ambassador expresses his/her thanks for your kind invitation and sends his/her regards, but due to his/her schedule is unable to attend.
And, at any events you do attend, please don’t touch anyone.
Since the Irish government seems have the time and resources to conduct ceremonies remembering dead British soldiers who fought against the Irish, there is no excuse not to immediately change citizenship laws to allow all descendants of Irish exiled abroad (from things like famine) to be allowed to return to their ancestral homelands from places like the United States and Canada, without restriction.
Eric Hafner
Toms River,
New Jersey,
USA.
