Bid to alter official account of Ballyseedy Civil War massacre

Ahead of the centenary on March 7, Kerry Sinn Féin councillors want to have a new account of the atrocity officially recorded

John O’Shea at the Ballyseedy monument. As he tells Mick Clifford in today's 'Irish Examiner', Mr O'Shea had relatives on both sides of the Civil War. One was among the unarmed republicans murdered at Ballyseedy, and another was among the Free State soldiers who perpetrated the massacre. Picture: Domnick Walsh

Two motions are coming before Kerry County Council on Monday seeking to alter the official account of the Ballyseedy atrocity during the Civil War.

The identical motions by Sinn Féin councillors Deirdre Ferris and Robert Beasley say the deaths of eight Republican prisoners in early March 1923 near Tralee was “a deliberate action” by the national army and not because of a roadblock mine set by republicans.

A move in January by Mr Beasley to look for a Government apology for Ballyseedy was later dismissed as divisive by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors.

“We have been waiting for the apology and it hasn’t come,” said Mr Beasley. 

After 100 years, it is time to get it straight and let the public know exactly what happened. 

The account that the eight republican prisoners who were killed at Ballyseedy were clearing a roadblock set by republicans was what was at issue.

If that account was set straight, it would affect other atrocities in which republicans were killed in Kerry, including those at Countess Bridge, Killarney, and Bahaghs, Caherciveen, said Mr Beasley.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael hold 17 of the 33 seats on Kerry County Council.

The parties are to meet separately on Monday morning to consider their response, according to sources.

Emily Hofmann and Nessa O’Shea at Mise, le Meas: The Irish Civil War, an exhibition at Siamsa Tíre in Tralee, which is also hosting a conference on the Civil War next week. See details at the foot of this article. Picture: Domnick Walsh

Particular pressure will come on the 10 Fianna Fáil members.

Stephen Fuller, the only survivor of the Ballyseedy massacre, was a TD for Fianna Fáil in the 1930s. He rarely spoke about the atrocity and told his family to forgive what happened.

An academic conference on the Civil War in Kerry, described by Tourism and Culture Minister Catherine Martin as “a key event in this year’s Decade of Centenaries programme” will take place next week at Siamsa Tíre, Tralee.

It will examine how and why Kerry came to be synonymous with the worst brutality and bitterness of the Civil War, said spokesman Owen O’Shea.

A screening of the acclaimed film  Ballyseedy by Pat Butler, for the first time in 25 years, is already sold out.

• The Kerry Civil War Conference — History, Memory and Legacy opens at Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, on Thursday, February 23, with a keynote address by Diarmaid Ferriter. The conference continues until Saturday, February 25.

• Siamsa Tíre is also hosting Mise, le Meas: The Irish Civil War, an innovative visual media exhibition which continues until March 1.
It is a collaboration between the animation, visual effects and motion design students at MTU Kerry Campus and students of digital design, visual communication, and animation (creative media) in Kerry College.