Historians to debate Bandon massacre of 1922

One of the most controversial events of the War of Independence, one of the bloodiest sectarian massacres, when 18 people – all but one of them Protestant – were killed in west Cork in April 1922, will be debated at a public event in Cork city this weekend.

Dr John M Regan, who teaches Irish and British history at the University of Dundee, will deliver a lecture, The Bandon Massacre Revisited, in which he will examine the controversial interpretation of the events by the late Prof Peter Hart, who wrote a history of the IRA in west Cork.

A group of professional historians will participate in the debate.

Members of various faith groups from around Cork have also been invited to attend the event, which is open to the general public.

It is being organised by Dunlaoí Teoranta at the Imperial Hotel tomorrow at 2.30pm.