British should ‘exonerate’ executed of 1916 as part of commemoration

When Britain’s Queen Elizabeth addressed Ireland in Dublin Castle, in May, 2011, she said that the events of our mutual history had touched us all and, with the benefit of hindsight, we could all see things that should have been done differently; that in 2011 the peoples and the governments of Britain and Ireland enjoyed bonds that were based on understanding and reconciliation.

Her sentiments were warmly and widely welcomed.

In September, 2006, the British government, through the ministry of defence, issued a general statutory pardon to 300 British military personnel, including 26 born in Ireland, who had been executed for a range of disciplinary offences during the First World War — based on charges that were likely to have been influenced by the stresses associated with war, for example: desertion, cowardice and mutiny.