Honour the ‘Oskar Schindler of Killarney’ – not so-called IRA martyrs

IT was with some trepidation that I read Enniscorthy Town Council has agreed to a statue in the town to the so-called Edentubber Martyrs who died while preparing one of their own bombs just south of the border in 1957.

Why erect a status to five would-be bombers who were intent on death and destruction in Northern Ireland?

We have not erected a statue to the Enniskillen or Omagh bombers, so why the Edentubber bombers?

Instead, why not erect a status to Hugh O’Flaherty, the somewhat unconventional Co Kerry priest who served in the Vatican just a few years before the Edentubber incident? O’Flaherty may have neglected his priestly duties, but he is widely credited with saving the lives of 4,000 Jews, communists and other refugees through his network of safe houses in Rome during the Nazi occupation.

He even evaded several attempts to arrest him by the head of the SS in Rome, Herbert Kappler. Yet after the war, Fr O’Flaherty worked with the Red Cross to ensure German prisoners were treated humanely according to the Geneva Conventions. Hugh O’Flaherty is sometimes referred to as the “Oskar Schindler of Killarney” – yet where is the statue to him? Israel paid O’Flaherty its highest honour in 2003, so why not his native country? If Enniscorthy is to erect a statue, then let it be one that celebrates life and humanity and not death and division.

Eugene O’Donovan

Ealing

London