EDITOR – I refer to your report on the Dick Barrett Commemoration which took place last weekend. I note that the Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who spoke at the commemoration stated that ‘the government of the fledgling Irish State breached the core founding principles of its constitution by executing four anti-Treaty republican leaders’. One of them being Dick Barrett, of course.
With respect to Micheál Martin, he is being somewhat circumspect as regards this serious historical atrocity. I can well understand this considering the fact that he is in government with the Fine Gael party. Dick Barrett was detained on June 30th 1922 after the fighting in the Four Courts. He was detained in Mountjoy Prison for five months without charge or any legal process.
On the evening of December 7th, while still in Mountjoy, he was informed that the government had decided to execute him the following day without any trial or the like. On December 8th 1922, the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception, he was executed in Mountjoy Prison. Put simply, what happened to Dick Barrett was plain murder and we should call it out for what it was. He was a fine Irishman, a school teacher who loved his family and his country. We mourn his loss.
It is great that he has been honoured in his home place by the Dick Barrett Commemoration Committee in partnership with Cork County Council and Ballineen and Enniskeane Tidy Towns Association.
Dudley Potter, Malahide, Co Dublin.
Proud to attend Barrett commemoration
EDITOR – IRA Volunteers Dick Barrett, Liam Mellows, Rory O’Connor and Joe McKelvey had been in Mountjoy prison since their capture at the Four Courts in June. The Freestate cabinet had decided to execute them in an open act of reprisal for the killing of Sean Hales. The four were executed in the yard of Mountjoy prison on December 8th 1922 after being awoken in their prison cells.
This was murder and I was glad to attend his commemoration and unveiling of a bust to Dick Barrett in Ballineen. He was a fine Irishman a school teacher, a soldier and a patriot who loved his country the same as the other three four martyrs executed by the Free State Government at that time.
Noel Harrington, Kinsale.
An honour to have St Bernadette’s relics here
EDITOR – It’s a great honour and a blessing for Clonakilty and West Cork to have these relics with us for a short time. It goes back to Lourdes 1858 when our Lady the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St Bernadette and announced to her and the world that she was the immaculate conception. It became a dogma of our Catholic faith and is an important feast of the Catholic Church.
Our Lady’s yes to the almighty god led to the birth of Jesus and the Catholic and Christian faith. She is very close to Jesus and the almighty god and is constantly pleading and begging for the salvation of all mankind. At Lourdes, Fatima, Garabandal, Akita, Medjugorje, and many other apparition sites around the world she has made many visits from heaven relaying messages from god and warnings to all mankind. Only prayer and repentance of sin can stop these senseless wars and the worldwide killing of innocent children and people.
Jeremiah McCarthy, Tawnies Grove, Clonakilty.
Why do we ‘half do’ things in this country?
EDITOR – On a visit to West Cork at the weekend it was lovely to see the smooth road surface at the roundabout leading to the Schull and Marsh roads in Skibbereen. The newly-painted road markings are super, too. Well done, Cork County Council. But what about the actual Marsh Road which has been a bone-rattler for some time now?
Especially as the worst potholes are right outside the Bus Éireann depot, one would think this section would have been ripe for some of that nice resurfacing? I would imagine there are an awful lot of heavy vehicles using this section of road, which leads to the entrances to the NCT centre, the mart, West Cork Distillers and CH Marine. Would it have hurt to move the equipment a few feet west of the roundabout and finish the job properly? We always seem to ‘half do’ things in this country.
Susan Crowe, Ballincollig.
Bandon a role model for a United Ireland
EDITOR – I am at present reading the book ‘Behind the wall – the rise and fall of Protestant power and culture in Bandon’. It is with pride I read that Bandon and the area around us was largely free from sectarian violence during the events of 100 years ago. Bandon was a commercial Protestant town. If you go back centuries, Catholics were not allowed inside the walls. But during the decades since Independence, gradually the streets names were changed from the old Protestant heroes, to those of nationalist heroes, for example Boyle Street became Connolly Street.
The educated Catholic businessmen replaced the old Protestant businesses. Sinn Féin are calling for a United Ireland minister to prepare for a United Ireland. What better place to look for a model, a pattern for Ireland than Bandon, with its peaceful co-existence of both cultures. I firmly believe the term ‘Bandon – where the pigs were Protestant’ was a backhanded term of endearment to the other side.
Michael Hallissey, Mayfield, Bandon.
