There was no public inquiry into the second biggest loss of life here during the second World War

We have a cruel hierarchy of remembrance. This will be offset somewhat next week at the Galway Film Fleadh with the screening of a documentary on the Ballymanus sea mine disaster in west Donegal 80 years ago which killed 19 young males, 11 of them under the age of 18. The feature was produced and directed by young filmmakers Patrick Sharkey and Seán Doupe, who point out that “the disaster is little-known in Ireland despite being the second biggest loss of life on the island during the second World War” after the North Strand bombing in 1941.

The documentary makes for uncomfortable viewing not just because of the carnage the explosion wrought on May 10th, 1943, but because of what it reveals about the power dynamics within Irish rural society at that time. Like other contributors I was asked to consider the reasons for the silences around it.

The mine had been observed at Ballymanus beach hours before it exploded and reported to the Garda sergeant at Annagry. When it came to shore locals aged from their teens to their 30s tied a rope around it to try to move it. The subsequent explosion was devastating. The Derry Journal described how parents and other relatives rushed to the beach which was “strewn with mangled bodies ... smashed bodies of boys, several of them unrecognisable, were lying lifeless on the sands; some of them were blown to pieces, their limbs being found hundreds of yards away from a great crater”. One family lost three sons.

The tasks of collecting the remains and identification were horrendous. The coffined remains were laid out in the hall at Mullaghduff and in the days that followed “many relations of the victims arrived from Scotland, where there were renewed distressing scenes”, a reminder of that part of Donegal’s dependence on migratory labour.

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Questions have always lingered about whether the tragedy could have been avoided if proper procedures had been followed relating to the discovery of mines and the extent of the pressure placed on families not to demand an official inquiry. There was, it appears, some determination to close down a probing of exactly what had happened and why. After the mine’s presence was reported the Garda sergeant informed a local coast watch member, who stayed on the beach for two hours and warned the locals to stay away, after which he left to inform his ordnance officer of the situation.

It was not unusual for mines to be washed up on the western coast and for them to be defused by Irish Army personnel. The clear official instruction relating to the appearance of mines was that local gardaí were required to “immediately take such steps as are necessary to ensure that no one approaches to within 500 yards of the article”.

The failure to cordon off the area, it was subsequently asserted by a Garda superintendent’s report, amounted to “grave neglect” by the local sergeant who some witnesses maintain was drunk. He was quickly moved to another area straight after the tragedy. The inquest jury suggested the disaster could have been prevented if he had followed official instructions in advance of the arrival of the military. It was also reported that at the inquest solicitors for the next of kin “demanded a full public investigation” and “the coroner stated that he understood that was the intention”.

The local parish priest, Canon McAteer, “the revered and well-beloved pastor of the lower Rosses”, was described as playing “a conspicuous part in helping to alleviate the great weight of sorrow”. But he was also determined that beyond the inquest there would be no public inquiry: instead he “counselled the bereaved to now let the matter rest and content themselves with prayer”.

Likewise local Fianna Fáil TD Cormac Breslin made his views known privately: “it would be ridiculous to hold an inquiry...it would only show up the local people as an ignorant stubborn lot who had no respect for authority”.

On hearing of some unease about the lack of inquiry Canon McAteer warned he would not be “double crossed” by any further agitation on the matter.

The departments of defence and justice decided “no useful purpose” would be served by an inquiry and it has been maintained that some within the locality shared that view.

In any event there was an extraordinary amount of pain internalised by this small impoverished Gaeltacht community. The tragedy still haunts both the beautiful landscape and the descendants of the victims in a part of the country too often forgotten and marginalised. At least in Galway next week the deaths of the 19 men – Owen Harley, John Sharkey, Michael Sharkey, John Joe Carson, James Duffy, Dennis Harley, Manus O’Donnell, Anthony Sharkey, Hugh Duffy, Joseph Harley, John Boyle, Patrick Gallagher, John McGinley, Owen Gallagher, Edward Gallagher, John Roarty, Dominic Gallagher, Anthony Rodgers and James Rodgers – will be powerfully remembered.