Royal Mail Bags and 1916 paintings

I find it utterly revolting to see Royal Mail bags being used to collect and transport Irish mail. And not just in the 6 counties still under English occupation. These bags can be seen in every post office in the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. The worst insult is to see them lying around in the GPO! The courageous men and women who fought there to give Ireland our freedom are being totally disregarded and disrespected. We must get our own mailbags immediately! What in God's name is wrong with this country? Did not Bertie Ahern promise that Ireland would stand on its own feet? Can not the "second richest country in the world", as has just recently been put into the news, afford some cheap nylon mail bags announcing " Republic of Ireland Mail"? Of course he did and of course it can. But the message boldly emblazoned on these propaganda mailbags is one of subjugation to the English. You see this message every time you go to any post office in this country. You learn to accept it as part of the normal background scene.

I am an Irish citizen born abroad and it is a glaring shock to my senses. I don't like it at all. I grew up in the United States, a country that also fought a war of independence against the English occupier. We, however, really did get our independence from England and our mailbags do not have "Royal Mail" splashed  all over them! Why do yours still have this propaganda from the country that invaded and oppressed Ireland for so many hundreds of years after you supposedly won your independence? England does not still own us. Or does it? The presence of these Royal Mail bags declare, loud and clear, that we are a part of the British Empire.

And where are the wonderfully appropriate paintings of the  Easter Rising in the GPO that were recently removed for the renovations done there? They belong back where they proudly hung for all to remember the men and women who fought so bravely right there at the GPO to win our independence from England. I was so proud and awed every time I saw those paintings. Everyone should see our history come alive through these vivid images. Where is Irish pride? Why is our heritage being hidden?  So it will be more easily forgotten and the present day continuing occupation of Ireland by England made more palatable? I don't swallow that goal plan and neither should my fellow Irishmen and Irishwomen even though you grew up with this type of cultural genocide all around you. I find it glaringly obvious. Why don't you?

Regain your independence. Call and write to the mail service to demand Irish mailbags for Irish mail. And please demand the historic 1916 paintings of the Rising be placed back where they belong.