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.