Shining a light on a dark and bloody past

RTÉ has done a great service to us all and to the historical record by its screening of CSÍ: Cork ’s Bloody Secrets on October 5 on the massacre of innocent Protestants in the Bandon valley in 1922 at a time when hostilities were supposed to have ceased between Ireland and Britain, and before the civil war began.

The deliberate seeking out and slaughter of these innocents have for far too long gone off the radar. It is commendable to see a light being shone into such a dark corner of our history.

At times the great injustice done to those people was sometimes compounded by various spurious claims of justification — that they were informers and the like.

Hardly ever mentioned until now, however, was the question of land, religion and settling of old scores in that Protestantism was at times equated to Britain and the invader.

Finally, the location of the bodies of those innocents killed should be identified, and if possible and returned to their families.

For all their perniciousness and evil, the modern IRA blood brothers of the recent 30-year campaign in the North have made efforts to do just that with the disappeared.

Decency and humanity demands no less.

Brendan Cafferty

Creggs Road

Ballina

Mayo