Editorial: President was right to distance himself from partition event fiasco

Historically tone deaf, the Church Leaders Group turned a ‘service of reflection’ into a political event loaded with significance

Michael D Higgins was correct to decline the invitation to attend the partition commemoration. Picture: Tommy Clancy

Somebody has made an almighty mess of next month’s religious ceremony to commemorate the centenary of partition and the creation of Northern Ireland – and it is not President Michael D Higgins. The blame for this affair lies with the leaders of Ireland’s churches, who have turned what they intended as “a service of reflection and hope” into a lesson in the perils of historical misremembering.

The ceremony is to be held in St Patrick’s ...