Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said the execution of four republican prisoners 100 years ago was a breach of the Free State Constitution.
Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard “Dick” Barrett and Joseph McKelvey were executed without trial on the morning of December 8th, 1922 in Mountjoy Jail.
They were shot in retaliation for the murder of a Government TD Sean Hales the day before and the wounding of another TD Pádraig O’Máille.
The executions were ordered by the Free State Government just two days after the Irish State came into being.
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Speaking at a Fine Gael event to mark the centenary of the Irish state, Mr Varadkar said the executions were “unconstitutional” as the 1922 Constitution stipulated that “no one shall be tried save in due course of law”.
Mr Varadkar hinted that the legacy of those executions may be dealt with at a later date. He takes office as Taoiseach on December 17th.
“We have to approach the anniversary of these terrible events with honesty, authenticity and courage, and with an acknowledgment and understanding of the uncomfortable parts of our shared history. There’ll be more time to reflect on that another day,” he told party members.
Mr Varadkar said WT Cosgrave, the president of the Executive Council, and his son Liam, who was Taoiseach between 1973 and 1977 when the Troubles were ongoing, “acted decisively to protect the State and the freedoms we all enjoy today”.
Speaking at a conference in UCD to mark the centenary of the State last week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the four executions were “murder by any definition and were seen so as that at the time”.
“The very point of being a constitutional Government is that you accept limits on your actions, even in moments of great stress,” he said.
“This is not looking back from the vantage point of the values of another era – it is something which was acknowledged by every person present in Dáil Éireann.”
He quoted then-Labour Party leader Tom Johnson who said at the time the executions were “utterly to destroy in the public mind the association of the Government with the idea of law. I am almost forced to say you have killed the new State at its birth”.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Mr Martin stopped short of offering a State apology for the executions. He was urged to do so by Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan.
Mr O’Sullivan said: “The State has never acknowledged that these killings were illegal or wrong. The Taoiseach has said these killings were murder by any definition. Today, almost 100 years since those executions. I ask that the Government finally acknowledge that these killings were manifestly illegal and wrong.”
The Taoiseach responded: “What happened to those four young men at that time was not in accordance with the law. As I said, it represented murder.”
