The Department of Defence declined a request to provide a flag party for the first national commemoration of soldiers who died in the Civil War.
A group of retired army officers organised the commemoration in Glasnevin Cemetery on Friday which was attended by many relatives of those involved.
The Respect and Loyalty to the Forgotten group say they were refused a flag party for the event, which was the first national commemoration for the more than 700 National Army soldiers who died in the Civil War.
The Department of Defence told organisers it had provided flag parties for local commemorations of the National Army dead and would be remembering those who died in the Civil War when the centenary of Óglaigh na hÉireann, the Irish Defence Forces, is marked in August 1923 next year.
[ A century on: How the executions of the Civil War scarred many familiesOpens in new window ]
A national commemoration for the Civil War took place in the National Concert Hall in September and was addressed by President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Michéal Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
The former Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell accused the Government of “tiptoeing around the Civil War in pursuit of an anodyne policy of offering the minimum of offence and the maximum of bland analysis and consensus”.
He noted that the Government had seen fit to remember the Irish who died in British uniforms during the first World War but not those who died to save the State in the Civil War.
Mr McDowell added that the reluctance to commemorate the National Army dead previously may be part of the residual guilt arising from the executions carried out by the State, but sufficient time had passed for that to no longer be a consideration.
There was no Government politician present on Friday, and no representative from the Irish army. The only current politicians who attended were independent TD and former army officer Cathal Berry and Senator Gerard Craughwell, who is also a former Irish army veteran.
Senator Craughwell said the Minister for Defence Simon Coveney and his department had “deeply insulted the families who died for the democracy we live in”.
The mood of the organisers was encapsulated by a quote from the Trinity College Dublin historian Dr Anne Dolan that was attached to the lectern for the speakers: “Nothing has robbed the Free State soldier of his dignity more than his government’s treatment of his memory.”
Compère, retired Lieutenant Colonel Mary Carroll, said it was “remarkable” that it had taken so long to remember the men involved. In saving the State at its inception, they deserved a “full and wholesome commemoration”, she suggested.
[ Diarmaid Ferriter: Civil War executions remain ugly legacy of State’s foundationOpens in new window ]
Historian James Langton, who chronicled the National Army dead in his 2019 book Forgotten Fallen, said he had visited many families in the course of compiling his book and they all had the “similar sad reflection – how their loved ones had been forgotten by a Government they died trying to defend and whose Government today wouldn’t exist without the sacrifices that these men made.”
He estimates that 488 National Army soldiers were killed in combat, a further 207 in accidents and 69 of natural causes in the 11 months of the Civil War.
Relatives of Gerald O’Connor who was one of the first National Army fatalities of the Civil War attended. O’Connor was shot in the head when his convoy was ambushed by the anti-Treaty IRA near Gort in Co Galway on July 8th, 1922. He left a widow with three young children.
Great-granddaughter Barbara Kelly said the grief that affected his wife and children “has trickled down the generations. It has been something that has affected every generation since”.
Edward Gethings was shot dead in September 1922 in Co Tipperary. His great-nephew Frank Gethings said there had always been a portrait of ‘Uncle Ned’ in his house. “These soldiers are the forgotten fallen. Everything was kept hush-hush. The National Army soldiers haven’t got any recognition until today.”
The Department of Defence has been contacted for comment.
