Senator has weak hold of moral high ground

I WAS tempted to check the date of your edition that carried the report from Senator Liam Twomey (‘Lenihan slammed as speaker for Collins commemoration, August 12’) objecting to a “Fianna Fáil minister like Brian Lenihan” giving the oration at the Michael Collins commemoration in Béal na mBláth next Sunday.

It was not that I expected to see it dated April 1, but sometime in the 1930s. Apart from such bigoted and neanderthal views, Senator Twomey’s letter carries some historical inaccuracies.

Most important of these is his statement “Fine Gael, the party that created the state under Michael Collins”, which is factually incorrect.

Michael Collins was killed on August 22, 1922, a full 11 years before the Fine Gael party was formed by the merger of Cumann na nGaedhael, the National Party and the National Guard.

Commandeering the moral high ground, Senator Twomey claims Mr Lenihan and Fianna Fáil are ethically unfit to speak at the commemoration because “their predecessors” murdered Michael Collins.

For the record, under Cumann na nGaedhael in September 1922, Robert Erskine Childers was summarily executed for possession of a revolver presented to him by Michael Collins despite the fact that a writ of habeas corpus was pending. In December of the same year Justice Minister Kevin O’Higgins ordered the summary execution of four prisoners – Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellowes, Dick Barrett and Joseph McKelvey – closely followed by the executions of a further 76 prisoners.

These executions were carried out by the predecessors of Senator Twomey’s Fine Gael party and could be regarded as being closer to murder than the killing of Michael Collins whose death was the result of military action during the civil war between pro- and anti-treaty forces.

Those of us who wish to see an end to civil war politics will welcome the decision of the Béal na mBlath commemoration committee chairman, Cllr Dermot Collins, to issue the invitation to Brian Lenihan.

The decision was long overdue as I take the view that the Big Fella belongs to us all.

Tom Cooper

Delaford Lawn

Knocklyon

Dublin 16