Media ignores tribute to the Boys of Kilmichael
This ambush, in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920, in Dublin, delivered an important message to the British government that the IRA were capable of defending the writ of Dáil Éireann.
The significance of the ambush can best be judged by the efforts of pro-British propagandists over the eight decades since to defame Gen Tom Barry and his West Cork flying column.
Meda Ryan, author of a recently published biography of Barry, delivered a most informative oration on the ambush in the course of which she rebutted the claims made by the then Queens University Belfast historian, Peter Harte, in his book.
Ms Ryan - whose uncle, Pat O’Donovan, was one of the Boys of Kilmichael - had interviewed most of those engaged in the ambush.
The attendance at the ceremonies exceeded that of the delegates at the annual gatherings of our political parties, yet the national media consistently ignore this occasion; no wonder circulation figures for the print media are not what they should be.
I compliment the commemoration committee for the dignity, order and respect evident throughout the proceedings. It is a special occasion that will endure with or without the national media. Like the committee that commemorates them, they were above politics; they were soldiers and patriots of the Irish nation.
John J Hassett
Old Road
Cashel
Co Tipperary
