The Church of Ireland
Diocesan Press Release

Bishop Paul Colton, Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, speaking tonight at a Dinner in Kinsale, Co Cork to mark the 400th Anniversary of the Battle of Kinsale said commemorations such as these need to be harnessed to catalyse worthwhile changes in Irish Society.

If our remembrance of the Battle of Kinsale hits anything home for us in these worrying days, it should be this: that the cost of war is always enormous in terms of human suffering. War can never be anything else.

Referring to the mix of new cultures in an increasingly pluralistic Ireland he said:

Now new cultures are arriving to our shores.

But we have got to be careful how we respond to those cultures – the long established majority and minority ones; and the newly arriving minority ones. I don’t believe it’s too audacious to claim that how we handle those cultures and create opportunities for them to dialogue and interface with one another will determine our future here. The measure of our maturity will be our ability to accommodate and integrate our minorities of many kinds, whilst still affirming majority perspectives which are themselves changing rapidly.

So we need opportunities for dialogue, bridge-building and where necessary the healing of memories between the many strands of Irish cultural expression of belonging, living and believing.

Referring to the Commemoration of the Battle of Kinsale he said:

The challenge for remembrances such as these is that they should be more than nostalgic playbacks of events. Rather if they are to have a potent use, we need to harness our remembering in order to catalyse worthwhile changes in our today and to shape our tomorrow.