Minister Flanagan misunderstands nature of proposal

SIR,

Finally bowing to public opinion, the minister for justice, Mr Charlie Flanagan, has cancelled the planned commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), who were killed in action during the period of the Irish War of Independence. It seems, however, that the minister continues to misunderstand the controversial nature of his original proposal.

The RIC was an illegitimate paramilitary police force, which took up arms against its own democratically elected Irish government. The election in question took place in December 1918 and resulted in Sinn Féin winning over 70 per cent of all seats on the island of Ireland. Subsequently, Dáil Éireann was formally established in January 1919. Britain refused to recognise the mandate of the Irish people and employed the RIC to hunt down the elected representatives and their lightly armed guards. A war of unequal forces was thereby unleashed upon the people and their representatives. (Though unarmed, the DMP worked hand in glove throughout the period in question with the RIC, the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary police).

Even in the middle of this RIC-led war on the rule of law, the Irish people again reiterated their support for democratic government. The urban and rural elections of January and June 1920 resulted in even more emphatic gains for Sinn Féin.

It is surely disingenuous to suggest that the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries sullied the reputation of the RIC. It was the latter, alone, who murdered Tomás MacCurtain, the democratically elected lord mayor of Cork. Incidentally, the notorious Inspector Oswald Swanzy, was named as one of the murderers at the subsequent coroner’s inquest in Cork. He fled but was successfully tracked down by the Dáil’s own police force and executed for his part in the appalling crime. It would appear the Irish government was about to honour this miscreant.

So far the minister for justice has had nothing at all to say about the real police heroes of the conflict, such as the poorly-armed republican police force. Nor has he mentioned the heroic RIC mutineers of Listowel in June 1920 – and the hundreds of other RIC throughout the country who followed their example. These men sacrificed their careers rather than ‘commit murder’ (the words of Constable Jeremiah Mee, police leader at Listowel barracks).

Honouring those RIC who took up arms against the democratic Dáil’s own army and police was a retrospective attempt to justify imperial might over right, to justify the role of the gun over that of the ballot box. Such a measure would have represented a slap in the face to Irish democracy. Well done to all our public representatives and private individuals, who stood up and were counted, Sincerely,

Billy Fitzpatrick Terenure,

Dublin 6W