Forgotten victims of Easter rebels

SOME vital points regarding 1916 have been totally ignored not only by official Ireland, including all sides of the Dáil, but in the media and among the clergy.

One glaring omission from the whole focus on 1916 has been the story of the presence of between 5,000 and 6,000 Irish soldiers from the British army’s Irish regiments that Easter week in Dublin.

They included three battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and from Portobello Barracks, Rathmines (now Cathal Brugha), the Royal Irish Rifles, drawn from Belfast, Antrim and Down.