Sir, – The release of the list of 1916 medal recipients is a welcome addition to the historiography of the Easter Rising.
The Military Archives does tremendous work and is to be applauded for its continued research and timely release of information. There are a few interesting omissions on the list of Rising participants, ie, those who received a pension and a medal. The brothers of Joseph Plunkett, Jack and George, both fought in the GPO. However, as they continued to remain active in the IRA in the 1940s they may not have been offered a medal or perhaps they did not apply.
Seán Russell, who also fought in the GPO but died on a German U-Boat in 1940, is also excluded from the list.
These are only three names that I spotted quickly and are a reflection on how the State treated those who fought in 1916 and who refused to discontinue their republican activities.
The medals were first issued in April 1941 against the backdrop of the IRA hunger strikes and executions of the early 1940s. How incongruous that Paddy McGrath, a veteran of the Easter Rising and a prisoner in Frongoch, and Thomas Harte were executed in September 1940 by de Valera’s government, the very government which awarded medals to the participants of the Rising.
Some men and women who were in the IRA in the 1940s did get medals and a pension but the question remains, how many lesser-known people from the Rising never asked for and were never offered an acknowledgement of their role? – Yours, etc, LORCAN COLLINS Templeogue, Dublin 6W