[A-List] Memorial to the "China War" at St. Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral, Dublin

[James Daly]

There is also, among many others, a bronze bas-relief panoramic 
depiction of "The Storming of the Temple of Rangoon".  -- James Daly

<http://www.chinastudygroup.org/index.php?action=front2&type=view&id=115&PHPSESSID=0af86fe1117c04d595e570d1a04ec2f9>

An open letter to the Primate of all Ireland on the Memorial to the 
China War at St. Patrick's Cathedral

by Ronan Sheehan | originally published in: Counterpunch 7 apr


To: The Most Reverend Robert Henry Alexander Eames, Archbishop of 
Armagh, Primate of all Ireland and Metropolitan; The Most Reverend 
John Robert Winder Neill, Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of 
Glendalough, Primate of Ireland and Metropolitan; The Very Reverend 
R.B. MacCarthy Dean and Ordinary The National Cathedral and Collegiate 
Church of Saint Patrick.

Dear Reverend gentlemen,

We recently conducted a Chinese visitor upon a tour of Dublin.

The context of this was the developing relationship between Ireland 
and China flowing from the remarkable growth of the economies of our 
two countries. Ireland and China have entered into agreements 
covering, inter alia, economic and cultural issues.

Essential to the growing spirit of solidarity is the principle that we 
share a common heritage as victims of colonialism. The first thing 
which caught our visitors' attention upon the streets of our capital 
was the prevalence of heroin addicts. It had been the determination of 
the Chinese government to resist the importation of drugs into their 
country, said resistance being the pretext for the invasion of China 
in 1841.

The one hundred and sixty-fifth anniversary of that illegal invasion 
occurs this year on May 24. That was Queen Victoria's birthday. Who 
was the head of the Church of Ireland. Let us go back to the first 
encounter between the Irish and the Chinese.

The commander of the invasion force was Hugh Gough, of Tipperary. 
Soldiers of the 18th Royal Irish Regiment were the first Europeans the 
people of Amoy ever saw. Many committed suicide. At Tinghai, the Royal 
Irish bayonetted defenders along the wall of the city until they 
reached Pagoda Hill. There they planted the colors. The Chinese had no 
weapons to match those of the invaders. The Royal Irish slaughtered 
them.

At Ningpo, the citizens opened their gates without a struggle, thereby 
frustrating Sir Henry Pottinger's object of plundering the town as a 
punishment for resistance. He proposed instead to steal public and 
ransom private property. Gough demurred, declining to disperse his men 
"to punish one set of robbers for the benefit of another set".

Gough and the Royal Irish moved on to Chapoo, where the stiffest 
resistance was offered by the Tartars, many of whom, preferring death 
to the dishonor of defeat, destroyed their wives, their children and 
themselves. On to Chingakingfoo where again the Tartars fiercely 
resist, where again they kill themselves in defeat. At Nanking, 
Pottinger offers to spare the city on payment of a ransom. The Tartars 
refuse to accept these terms, so Gough prepares to bombard them into 
submission. Then emissaries arrive from the Emperor, sueing for peace. 
They agree to indemnify the opium sellers and make a present of Hong 
Kong to the British, among other concessions.

Returning to the present day, our Chinese friend noted that Saint 
Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin flies the colors of the Royal Irish 
Regiment (1837-54). And noted that there was a large monument to some 
people who had died perpetrating the rape and humiliation of his 
country. A monument which attributed success in this action- called 
"The China War"-- to the intervention of Jesus Christ.

How can a national Cathedral of a country which presented itself to 
China as a fellow-victim of colonialism commemorate the humiliation of 
China? It was clear that the people who stole Hong Kong from the 
Chinese in 1842 were the same as those who had stolen Saint Patrick's 
Cathedral from the Irish in
1532, through a "surrender".

Dean and recalcitrant elements of the chapter of the then Catholic 
Cathedral-- some of whose sacred relics remain to this day beneath the 
altar-- were locked up in a room until they submitted to a man named 
Browne, who described himself as "a protestant", and agent of King 
Henry VIII.

The ancient sacred staff of Saint Patrick was burned by Browne 0…2 an 
act designed to humiliate the Irish people. So now instead of finding 
in our national cathedral the staff of our national saint, our Chinese 
visitor could find the standards of an army which had crushed and 
humiliated his people, and ours.

And our Chinese visitor was obliged to confront the pretence of the 
Cathedral: that the gospel of Jesus Christ was implicated in the 
humiliation of the Irish and the humiliation of the Chinese.

The British lease on Hong Kong ran out in 1991. Had not the lease on 
Dublin run out in 1922?

In 1948, when the British were evicted from India, all the imperial 
statues on the streets of Calcutta were collected and re-housed in 
Barrackpur in a kind of reservation for British imperial art. 
Something of that nature might have happened to Saint Patrick's 
cathedral. It didn't.

Shortly after the Chinese re-occupied the city of Hong Kong, every 
vestige of British imperial domination was removed. overnight. 
Something like that might have happened to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It 
didn't.

It is a matter of urgency now. Because the Church of Ireland Prelates 
have not condemned the illegal invasion of Iraq anymore than their 
forbears condemned the illegal invasion of China. Irishmen are part of 
the occupation force. At least one has died. There is a space on the 
wall of the North transept.

There are many Muslims in Dublin.

Our Chinese friend and ourselves concluded that seisin of Saint 
Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin should be surrendered to the people of 
Dublin. To all of us. Catholic, Buddhist, Orthodox, Hindu, Muslim, 
Jew, Sikh, Confucian -- everyone--not least the protestants, who are 
as sick of the duplicity of the hierarchy of the Church of Ireland as 
the rest of us.

If the surrender is not volunteered, it might be encouraged in the 
manner of the previous surrender. The Primate, the Archbishop and the 
Dean might be locked up in a room. And a deed of surrender slipped 
under the door. For execution.

There should be no need for that.

Our Chinese friend and ourselves shall be pleased to receive the 
surrender of Saint Patrick's on behalf of the people of Dublin.

Yours faithfully, Ronan Sheehan

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