Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not heckle the Minister of State. The truth hurts. It is funny that I am not even addressing the history of Fine Gael governments but the legacy of the actions taken against republicans by Fianna Fáil governments.

Charlie Kerins was refused the right of appeal and executed. The Government even went as far as banning any mention of his killing by the State on radio and in newspapers to prevent any groundswell of public support. George Plant, who had been an IRA volunteer since the 1920s, was a Protestant from the Minister of State's part of the country. Plant was dubiously tried and sentenced to death for the capture and interrogation of an informer, an IRA chief-of-staff named Sean Hayes. The State also executed, within weeks of arrest, volunteers Patrick McGrath and Tommy Harte, who were also refused the right of appeal, and volunteers Maurice O'Neill and Richard Goss. Bernard Casey was shot dead in captivity in the Curragh.

The Minister may argue that this is not the day for discussing these particular aspects of the State's wrongdoing. However, if we are to embark on a journey of healing wounds inflicted by the State in the past, these matters must be addressed. The State might not have such a schizophrenic approach to Irish reunification and its history and outworkings if it had faced up to its past and had a truth and reconciliation process at any stage since the 1920s. We are suggesting such a process for the period since the late 1960s but the State, even at this late stage, could establish a truth and reconciliation process for past events. It could even result in another merger, similar to that which took place when the Blueshirts, Cumann na nGaedhael and so forth came together, albeit this time between Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and maybe even Sinn Féin, given that we all came from the same party before going are separate ways.

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