Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Next week will be the 100th anniversary of four massacres that took place during the Civil War in County Kerry. The first was carried out by anti-treaty IRA troops at Knocknagashel on 6 March resulting in five people dead. The other three were carried out by the Free State Army at Ballyseedy, Killarney and near Cahirsiveen on 7, 8 and 12 March. In total, 17 prisoners of the Free State were killed in those three atrocities. At Ballyseedy, the Free State Army tied prisoners to each other and tied them to a barricade that they had mined themselves. So grotesque was the result that it is said that the birds ate flesh from the branches of the trees for days afterwards. Historians have shown that the Minister for Defence, General Richard Mulcahy, lied to the Dáil when he said the mines had been laid by the anti-treaty IRA. The Dáil record was never corrected. As the leaders of the two Government political parties that originate from the Civil War forces, both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste should make statements to the Dáil next week correcting the official record of Dáil Éireann and condemning the war crimes that were committed in County Kerry 100 years ago by both sides, including by the forces of this State.

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