Why honour a ‘scorched earth’ British officer?

DONEGAL’S Cllr Marion McDonald (FF) recently proposed that Viscount Bernard Montgomery should be commemorated in Donegal, his birthplace.

This may be problematic as Irish people (albeit currently only one of them) are proposing to commemorate the house of someone who supported the burning of Irish people’s houses.

Montgomery wrote on this very subject in a (recently published) letter to the notorious Major Percival of the Essex Regiment in 1923 (they were stationed together in Cork): “Personally, my whole attention was given to defeating the rebels but it never bothered me a bit how many houses were burnt. I think I regarded all civilians as ‘Shinners’ and I never had any dealings with any of them. My own view is that to win a war of this sort, you must be ruthless.”

However, he did not believe the British were ruthless enough: “Oliver Cromwell, or the Germans, would have settled it in a very short time. Nowadays public opinion precludes such methods, the nation would never allow it, and the politicians would lose their jobs if they sanctioned it.”

Montgomery’s friend, the letter recipient, was infamous during the War of Independence for torturing and shooting prisoners. As a result, after then Major Percival ignored a written warning, the IRA issued an order that members of the Essex Regiment be shot on sight, whether in arms or not.

Percival, like Montgomery, is probably better known today for Second World War exploits, though their paths diverged. While Montgomery is known for being both an ally of and an irritant to Gen Dwight D Eisenhower, Percival’s claim to fame centres on his command of Singapore in 1942. He surrendered it to an inferior, though largely unseen, force of Japanese advancing through the jungle on bicycles.

Perhaps, having underestimated the Irish in 1919-’21, he did not wish to make the same mistake twice and made the opposite one instead. Montgomery is possibly not the best example of the type of person who should be commemorated in Donegal. He certainly would not be commemorated positively in Cork where he supported the house burnings mentioned in his letter to Percival. Perhaps the Cork Fianna Fáilers could have a quite word with their Donegal counterpart.

Niall Meehan

Offaly Road

Cabra

Dublin 7