Sir, - J. P. Duggan's suggestion (April 23rd) of rendering military honours to the Irish soldiers of 1798 and a possible "symbolic winterment" of some of the dead insurgents, is interesting in that it is similar to a plan, already being discussed, to recover the remains of a Wexford pikeman from his unmarked grave in County Meath and restore them to his native county.
Committees in Meath, Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford have been presented with such a plan, titled "The Funeral of the Unknown Pikeman", which would see a ceremonial cortege passing, over a period of several days and nights, through Navan, Slane, Drogheda, Dublin, Arklow and Gorey, to an eventual resting place at Oulart Hill in County Wexford.
The historical provenance of such a tribute would rest in the probability that the Unknown Pikeman fought his first battle at Oulart in May 1798 and his last in County Meath in July of that same year. No doubt he would have wished to be buried in his own native parish.
Perhaps J. P. Duggan will see some merit in this plan to pay dignified if belated tribute to an Irish soldier of 1798. The organisers might benefit from his military experience and knowledge. - Yours, etc.,
Chairman, Dublin 98,
The Tailors' Hall,
Back Lane,
Dublin 8.