The following appeared in the Irish Times of April 11th:—
"With a uniformed policeman and three detectives in plain clothes standing nearby, workmen were busy in the General Post Office, Dublin, yesterday, on what is presumably the base for the statue of Cuchulann, the official memorial to the men who were killed in 1916. It will be recalled that the statue, which had been in the public hall of the General Post Office for a long time, was removed last week by men employed by the Office of Public Works.
"President de Valera will formally unveil it during the remembrance celebrations on Easter Sunday morning."
I object to the expenditure of money on that object in the particular circumstances in which it is now being spent. I indicated that in August last when, without previous notice to the House and half an hour before the Adjournment Motion was taken closing the session for the summer, the Minister for Finance, in a most casual way, asked the House to grant £1,000 to be spent in putting up a memorial to the Easter Week men at the General Post Office. Certain criticism was made against that. There was no vote against it because it came on in an unexpected way at the end of the session. It was, however, indicated that this was going to be a national thing, a State thing, that the occasion was one to honour the men of 1916, one that was to be an honour to this State, and one to help to unify the various Parties in the State. No exception was taken since to the matter until an advertisement appeared in the Irish Press early in March indicating that a Fianna Fáil flag day was to be run on Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter Sunday. There was disseminated to the Press the information that the President was going to unveil the memorial on Easter Sunday, that there was to be a big procession of men who were out in 1916, that the Army was to parade, that Volunteers were to be brought from all parts of the country, and that there was to be a big military display. No invitations have yet been issued by the President or by the Government or anything done to indicate that this is being carried out out of State finances.