Sir, - I am certainly surprised at Peter Hart's contention (June 23rd) that Dail Eireann, which I claim was the lawfully elected government of the Irish people, had no legal standing and was never recognised by any foreign government. He states further that the IRA acting without uniform and depending on their civilian status, did not meet the requirements of international law (whatever that may be) and the British government was therefore within its rights to give courts martial the power to order executions.
Older readers will remember that after the last war, scores - if not hundreds - of German army officers were executed in formerly occupied territories for doing precisely what Mr Hart claims was legal. If Irish guerillas fighting without uniform deserved execution, surely also did the French Resistance fighting in the same manner. And it must be remembered that the French Resistance was also fighting in open defiance of their own government, which had concluded a peace treaty with Germany in 1940. Your readers will also recall that at Nuremberg, German leaders were held responsible, and rightly so for atrocities against civilians, although they themselves never actually "pulled the trigger". Many were executed.
I never read any writer advocate that Lloyd George or Sir Hammer Greenwood or Lord French (Commander of the British occupation forces), should have been tried for their lives on account of atrocities committed against the civilian population in Ireland and most especially, for the horrific murders of Canon Magner in Dunmanway and Fr Brown in Galway that I referred to in a previous letter. The revision of history works in a very selective manner indeed.
It seems to me that in international law, the poor, the underprivileged, the third world, Irish patriots fighting for independence are in one category, and the rich and powerful nations and the victors are in another.
On the matter of the Kilmichael Ambush, Peter Hart refers to an account written General Tom Barry in 1920, I knew the General very well indeed. Is it seriouslycontended that in the middle of the War of Independence, he was guilty of an extraordinary breach of security, by committing to paper details which would incriminate himself and others and even attached his signature to the document? And then it was conveniently captured by the British army. This sounds very much like fiction to me or the British black propaganda. Where is the letter now? In the British war museum? Can Peter Hart produce even a photocopy? I am sure you, sir, would be delighted to reproduce it. It would be of great interest to readers. - Yours, etc., Padraig O Cuanachain,
Corcaigh.