Sir, – Niall Meehan (January 20th) seems to have a problem about there being any element of sectarianism here during War of Independence and after, and he quotes a Protestant Convention in May 1922 in Dublin.
However, I would rely on individual Church of Ireland ministers and bishops to know what was going on throughout the land, and indeed land was often the operative word. And we owe it to the burned out boys of Ballyconree that neither their religion nor the views of their warden were justification for what happened to them.
In June 1922, the Church of Ireland Gazette also made it clear that “in certain districts in Southern Ireland inoffensive Protestants of all classes are being driven from their homes, their shops and their farms in such numbers that many of our little communities are in danger of being entirely wiped out.” Mullingar, Athenry, Loughrea and Nenagh were mentioned. In Tipperary on August 5th, 1921, the Bishop of Cashel Dr Miller said: “Five of our members have been foully murdered without the slightest justification” and he appealed to Protestants in the area not to emigrate in the face of intimidation.
Local Rector Rev Sterling Berry wrote on June 10th, 1922 that in the area of Templederry, Silvermines and Ballinclough there was “scarcely a Protestant family which had escaped molestation, houses have been burned, Protestant families have been forced to leave the neighbourhood, altogether a state of terrorism exists”.
As my late father, who was involved, told me, there were many idealistic individuals involved in War of Independence, but this sectarian element was also present. Sadly many Protestants and their clergy remained silent about this and kept the heads down just to be left alone. Indeed on October 7th, 1921, the COI Gazette reported that even the migration of younger clergy had begun. – Yours, etc,