Military Funeral Procession Refused Entry to Kilkenny Church Over Tricolour on Coffin

The Catholic Church shows its animosity towards Nationalism.

The funeral of Michael Collins.

The Catholic Church is an entity that is increasingly making an enemy of itself in the eyes of the Irish people. Even devout catholics look at the church now as failed institution, unable to assert its moral code or set of beliefs. Instead the church is now seen as organisation in a kind of receivership, auctioning off its properties to the state funded Islamic expansion project. Its sermons are now almost exclusively used to push state narratives such as the Ukraine conflict nonsense, the vaccine narrative as well other social contagions. Bar a few hold out priests, the vast majority of the church is on board entirely with the Globalist agenda. It should come as no surprise to you reading this that the church is now interfering with the sacrosanct burial traditions of the Irish people. Priests, under the instructions of their Bishops, are now implementing anti-nationalist restrictions on funeral services, even going so far as to prevent the national flag from being draped over the coffins of our deceased Defence Forces members.

The post shared on Facebook.

It appears to be the case that on Monday 7th April, At a funeral service here in Kilkenny at St. Canices Catholic church Dean Street Kilkenny, Such an incident took place. In the social media post seen above, A defence Forces member Declan Sheridan breaks his silence on the matter, unable to hold his peace. Declan, the posts author, describes a scene of unbearable shame as a priest holds two families, one of blood and one of honour, to ransom. His demands were familiar and in line with the wishes of the powers that be who so desperately wanted to separate the church and state, yet here they are now speaking through our priests as if by remote control. The demons behind this priest’s actions demanded through him that the National Flag, the Tricolour be removed from the coffin before this man, whoever he is, could be allowed to continue on his final journey. As the post describes, this priest invoked the “I am just doing my job” defence and passed the blame onto the Bishop above him. As Declan writes, the clergy who administer the faith are nasty, rude and fake-nice. A big act of virtue signalling that mirrors the most extreme examples of woke. Even with written requests to accommodate the traditional draping of the coffin for military funerals the ignorance of the Church was seemingly put on full display on Monday.

I have read about such events in the past, but having experienced it first hand now I feel we need to make contact with the Head Chaplain and get advice of how best to insure this lack of respect shown to deceased veterans does not happen again.

The practice of denying a coffin entry into a church with a Tricolour on it is not new and not uncommon but it does appear to be a vindictive attempt to associate nationalism with sin or badness. it also appears to be the case that activist priests have gone completely rogue as of late, making up these rules only to be exposed by their own Bishops. In the case of the funeral of long time service man Denis “Dinny” Barry, who was denied the Tricolour and had his service at the funeral home instead, fellow service men were approached by the Irish Times for statements. Defence Forces member Colm O'Mahoney confirmed a request was made to the Bishop for clarification on the matter who responded and stated that the draping of the tricolour was permitted.

he had contacted the diocese of Clogher and was assured by the Bishop’s office that the use of the national flag is permitted during funeral Masses for ex-Defence Forces members

This inconsistency in positions is clearly the result of activist priests who have adopted the position of open borders and globalism. With no obvious official singular stance from the church as a whole, the family of deceased service men are left with uncertainty during what is arguably the most important ceremony of a military mans lifecycle, his burial. Thankfully, Declan includes in his post, a letter released by the Defence Forces in 2016 stating that an Episcopal Conference was held in 2010 and an agreement was made between the Bishops and the Defence Forces. The Tricolour was to be permitted on the coffins of servicemen.

In the Facebook post above, Declan seems to quote another mans words by the name of Larry. It appears to be the case that a letter was even submitted in advance but the coffin was allowed to proceed to as far as the church before the priest made his objections known. That’s the impression given by Larry and Declan’s brief description of the days events. How disgusting is that? Now even with the knowledge that some priests from time to time object to the National flag being on the coffin, it is generally expected that military men practice this tradition, but most importantly, the Defence Forces have specifically gained agreement with the Church on this matter. In fact, it is the official policy of the Defence Forces on their website to drape a Tricolour on the coffin of a deceased volunteer.

State and Military Funerals

The National Flag

At a State/Military funeral the coffin shall be draped with a ceremonial flag (9 ft by 4.5 ft with loops). It shall be placed length ways and evenly on the coffin with the green portion to the head. When the coffin has been draped with the National Flag the head-dress and sword will be placed on the coffin:

1. The head-dress will be placed on the head of the coffin, over the green portion of the flag, with the peak of the cap or the badge of the beret pointing towards the head.

2. The sword in the case of officers, will be placed centrally on the coffin with the hilt towards the foot of the coffin

3. The Service Dress Belt, in case of other ranks personnel, will be placed lengthways centrally on the coffin with the clasp closed.

Pro-Cathedral Dublin 1922 (Michael Collins) by artist Sir John Lavery

As you can see in the artists impression of Michael Collins funeral above, throughout Irish burial history, the practice is a traditional one and part of Irish military custom from the birth of the Free State and even before it. This is unquestionable and beyond the accepted remit of the Church to interfere with this practice. As the older crowd will tell you, it’s the done thing. There are many images from the time of the war of independence and the civil war and onwards from there again until now of this being the done thing.

The Tricolour draped over the casket of Arthur Griffith being carried out of the Pro Cathedral

The Church seems to have adopted a mutually beneficial relationship with the state to usher in its Anti-Nationalist policy, which is the policy of the EU, and in return the church receives lucrative contracts for housing IPAS applicants which we have seen up and down the length and breath of the country. 800 year old Franciscan orders are being evicted from monasteries and friaries to make way for Islamic expansionists at a massive cost to the tax payer and financial gain to the Church. The European Union’s attempts to destroy national identity and patriotism, which is fundamentally Christian in character, have been facilitated in part by the church who are now bearing their teeth towards the traditional practices we have held dear here for decades and even centuries. The church is also trying to ban Latin mass at the minute which should raise eyebrows on its own but this attempt to ban the flag of our country from Christian functions is insidious and a conscious act of aggression towards the integrity of our Nation. The Church appears to be falling on its own sword, perhaps trying expedite the death of the faith here. It sure seems that way. As a baptised and semi-practicing catholic, it appears to me at least that the church is committing suicide in pursuit of anti-nationalist policy here by normalisation of shame and denigration of our national pride and symbols. This priest, presumed to be either Fr Jim Murphy or Fr Willie Purcell, and their Bishop, Niall Coll deserve to be lashed out of it publicly for this gross insult to the dead service man, his family, the Defence Forces and the wider community.

Bishop Niall Coll, centre.

I am going to send this article to Declan in hopes that he reads it and circulated it amongst the Defence Forces. I am going to speak to them directly here. The attempted removal of the Triple lock and loss of national sovereignty to EU/NATO is connected to this malicious interference from within the church towards your devotion to our flag. The same people that want you to go to war as part of a common EU Army want to destroy your loyalty to Ireland and its flag. It is part of a sophisticated process to break that tradition so that you become something else. Do you think they will stop you going out on your shield with an EU flag draped over you? These priests will have one on hand and you can be sure of that. Please for the love of god stand your ground on this and take action. Do not surrender the right to Nationhood.