Middle East crisis shares similarities with century-old IRA kidnappings

THE recent kidnappings of the three Israeli soldiers and the horrific repercussions have a haunting parallel with events in Tralee in 1920.

The local IRA kidnapped three members of the Crown police in two separate incidents, and the response of the Black and Tans received more international coverage than anything that ever happened in the town.

In late September 1920 the IRA in Tralee kidnapped a Black and Tan and held him for five weeks. On the night of October 29, 1920, the IRA took him out to Banna Beach and shot him, burying him in the sand hills. No historian has ever recorded his death. He is just remembered as “Japer”.