FINE GAEL chief whip and TD for Wexford Paul Kehoe said he is “unhappy” and “hugely concerned” by the decision of Enniscorthy Town Council to grant permission for an IRA memorial in the town.
Earlier this month, the nine-member town council – which includes two Fine Gael members – unanimously agreed to permit an organisation called Coiste Cáirde na Laochra, Loch Garman, to erect a memorial on a public site commemorating the 1957 "Edentubber bombers". Mr Kehoe told The Irish Timesthat he had received "many calls" from residents close to the proposed site "who have huge concerns and were disappointed they were not consulted", and he plans to "take up the matter" with the council.
However, Sinn Féin councillor Johnny Mythen defended the decision.
He said Irish society had “matured” and that the council had already permitted a memorial “outside the Protestant church” commemorating those who had died in the two world wars.
He said the IRA Border campaign of 1956-1962 was also “part of Irish history” and should be remembered. On November 11th, 1957, five men died in an explosion in a cottage at Edentubber Mountain in Co Louth, beside the Border.
It is believed that the men, two of whom were natives of Wexford, were on their way to bomb a target in Newry as part of the so-called Border campaign staged by the IRA during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Mr Mythen said the men were “combatants” and “not terrorists”, and were intent on “attacking British installations” in Northern Ireland. He said one of the five men who died, George Keegan (28) came from “a highly respected Enniscorthy family with a long republican tradition” who was “proud to be raised in the shadow of Vinegar Hill”.
Enniscorthy Town Council has nine elected councillors: Fianna Fáil (2), Fine Gael (2), Labour (1), Sinn Féin (1) and Independents (3). Town clerk Pádraig O’Gorman said none of the councillors had objected to the request. Council chairman, long-serving councillor Seán Doyle, who is “non-party”, said he was “very surprised” that none of the councillors objected because he had pointed out that “the application mentioned Óglaigh na hÉireann, who don’t recognise any institutions of the State”.
Mr Doyle told The Irish Timeshe "used to be a member of Sinn Féin for 27 years", but quit in 1984 "after the IRA killed a guard and a soldier" and bombed Harrods, killing six people.
Fine Gael councillor Paddy Kavanagh admitted councillors were “caught on the hop”.
