Letters by anti-Treaty soldiers before execution show the tragedy of the Civil War

The letters written to their parents by two executed anti-Treaty soldiers on the eve of their deaths are striking reminders of dignity and forgiveness.

The last letters written to their parents by two executed anti-Treaty soldiers the eve of their deaths are striking reminders of dignity, forgiveness and lives unnecessarily wasted during Ireland’s Civil War, on the centenary of their deaths, which takes place this week.

Youghal men Michael Fitzgerald and Patrick O’Reilly, both aged 24 and members of the Cork No.1 IRA Brigade, had socialised in a ‘safe house’ in Clashmore, west Waterford on the night of December 3rd 1923.

Allegedly betrayed by an informer, they were captured by Free State soldiers at a nearby river location the following morning.

They were taken to Waterford’s Ballybricken jail, charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and sentenced to death.

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Despite a petition for clemency signed by 2,000 people, they were shot by firing squad at the infantry barracks on January 25.

Their coffins were subsequently held overnight at Youghal town hall after being refused entry to a Catholic church, in line with a canon law ruling that interpreted the deaths as tantamount to suicide.

They are buried in Youghal’s North Abbey cemetery, within 50m of two terraced home developments named in their memories.

The letter written by Michael Fitzgerald to his mother.

The letters, including copies and in addition to mortuary cards, have circulated in the region for some time.

However the original letter by Michael Fitzgerald was discovered in a book purchased in a Tramore discount shop by Ann Kenneally of Ring over 20 years ago.

Advised by neighbour Nicholas Graves, she eventually donated the letter to Dungarvan’s County Museum where it remains on display.

The letters match stoicism and humility to patriotism in the most daunting of circumstances.

Patrick O’Reilly wrote separately to both parents telling his mother not to “shed a single tear” and that she will in time be proud that her “only son” fought and died for “the old cause of the Republic”.

He says people saying “hard things about me now” would eventually recognise his sacrifice.

He forgives his detractors and hopes they will forgive him.

The soldier writes of feeling “very happy and never more brave” and pleads for “no reprisals as two wrongs never make a right”.

Writing to his mother, Michael Fitzgerald vows to “meet my doom like a Geraldine should”, cites his only crime as “loving my country” and asks her not to grieve.

The last letter from Patrick O'Reilly to his mother and to his father.

A former British Navy WW1 recruit, he reflects on having “faced death too many times both by land and sea to worry about a traitorous Irishman’s bullet”.

Michael writes of receiving confession and communion the next day and requests his mother to ask “anyone I had trouble with in Youghal to forgive me for I forgive them”.

In a request that was later refused, he hopes that both men would be shot together.