Anger over hall use for exhibition on MI5 founder

REPUBLICANS have expressed disgust that a public hall, dedicated to a Kerry Fenian, is being used to celebrate the life and times of a MI5 founder.

Sneem-born William Melville was closely connected with the founding of the inland British Secret Service and was credited with inspiring the fictitious spy character, James Bond.

An exhibition is being staged in the Tralee-based Kerry County Museum — named in honour of Dingle peninsula patriot Thomas Ashe who died on hunger strike in 1917.