MANSERGH SAYS 1921-23 PERIOD NEEDS TO BE EXPLORED AND DEBATED
COMMEMORATIONS to mark the centenary of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and the Civil War should be fully explored and debated but not in an overly partisan manner, historian and former Minister of State, Martin Mansergh told the annual Liam Lynch Commemoration in Fermoy this week.
Delivering the oration at Kilcrumper Cemetery in Fermoy where General Liam Lynch is buried, Mr Mansergh echoed comments made by President Michael D Higgins at Beal na Blath in August when he called for honesty in the commemorations to come.
“Inevitably as we approach the centenary of the Treaty split and the Civil War, the rights and wrongs on all sides will continue to be explored and debated but as the President has emphasised, it should not be done in an overly partisan manner or in a spirit of bitterness or recrimination,” he said.
“No side had the monopoly of right in their actions and it must never be forgotten that there that was a third party, viz the departing British power,” said Dr Mansergh who is Vice Chairman of the Government’s Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations.
Paying tribute to General Lynch who was fatally wounded in a firefight with Free State troops in the Knockmealdown Mountains in April 1923 towards the end of the Civil War, Dr Mansergh noted how Lynch had been hugely influenced in his political thought by the events of Easter Rebellion.
“Liam Lynch grew up in the aftermath of the Land War. He had a similar background to the Kent brothers of Castlelyons who, were not only in the case of two of them, victims of the 1916 Rising but also the key influences on Liam Lynch becoming more prominently involved in the Volunteers.”
“Lynch witnessed the brothers on across the bridge in Fermoy, now Kent Bridge (after their fight with the RIC at their home at Bawnard) and this was the decisive moment in his life when he resolved to dedicate himself wholly to the republican cause,” said Dr Mansergh.
He noted that while most people gratefully acknowledge that the Rising was the catalyst for the process that led to Irish independence, there were still critics who query the necessity or morality of resorting to force on the Irish side while never expressing any views on the British use of force.
Recalling the cursory trials and summary executions of the 1916 leaders and how it was supported by organs of Irish Unionist opinion at the time Dr Mansergh was critical of the argument made by former Taoiseach, John Bruton that Home Rule would have led to Irish independence,
Dr Mansergh pointed out that David Lloyd George, as a minister of the British Cabinet, tried to fast track Home Rule through in June 1916 in the aftermath of the Easter Rising following initial agreement with Unionist leader, Edward Carson and Irish nationalist, John Redmond.
Lloyd George’s idea was to proceed with the partition plan that had been suspended at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 but his plan was vetoed by the Irish Unionists and their Cabinet allies while a year later, an attempt to revive Home Rule on a 32-county basis was blocked by Ulster Unionists.
“So by the time, the Lloyd George-led Coalition manifesto was published for the December 1918 General Election, it stated that Home Rule could not be implemented because of what it called ‘ the present condition of Ireland’,” he said.
Dr Mansergh said in case anyone thought it was because Irish nationalists were seeking a republic, Lloyd George said in the House of Commons that it was not about whether Ireland was to be a republic but rather its very demand for sovereign independence which could not be permitted.
And he pointed to comments made by British Conservative Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury as far back as 1889 that England would never concede Home Rule to Ireland except it had to change its mind, not by persuasion but only under the pressure of military force and the shedding of blood.
Dr Mansergh noted that the late Fine Gael Taoiseach, Dr Garret Fitzgerald did not share Mr Bruton’s view that Home Rule would have led to independence, describing such a thesis as ”alternative history gone mad”.
“He (Dr Fitzgerald) argued that ‘ there is little reason to believe that Britain would have permitted Ireland to secure independence at least until many decades after the Second World War and by then the financial costs, because of the welfare state, would have been prohibitive’.”
Dr Mansergh said that it would be helpful to the debate on Easter 1916 if some commentators, who view the Easter Rising as the harbinger of apocalypse, death, poverty and a divided people, would simply state if it was their opinion that Ireland would have been better off to remain part of the UK.
He told the crowd of around 100 that it would contribute greatly to the openness and clarity of debate if these commentators would state “that unlike practically every other nation on earth, Irish freedom in their view was never worth a single drop of blood”.
Earlier, Cllr Frank O’Flynn of the Liam Lynch Commemoration Committee paid a warm tribute to his close friend the late Cllr Dan Joe Fitzgerald of Ballyclough and Mallow for his sterling work on the Liam Lynch Commemoration Committee for many years.
Among the public representatives in attendance at Sunday’s ceremony were Cork East Fianna Fail TD, Kevin O’Keeffe and Cork North Central Fianna Fail TD, Billy Kelleher as well as Cllr Ian Doyle, Cllr Daniel Fitzgerald and Cllr Deirdre O’Brien from Cork County Council.