Garret’s blind spot on the Great War
While the death of any individual is to be regretted, I feel nonetheless compelled to challenge the virtual universal consensus on the late Garret FitzGerald as an esteemed Son of Eireann.
Dr Fitzgerald had an unmistakably nationalist, patrician aspect to his persona, and in no other area did this Olympian trait so venally manifest itself than in his attitude to those who volunteered to fight with the British in World War One -- he repudiated the loyal Redmondites who joined the war effort as being bereft of any national spirit.
He defined them outrageously as simply kowtowing like supine serfs to British imperial war exigencies. Dr FitzGerald showed a complete lack of historical nuance by dismissing and denigrating an entire honourable generation.
My great-grandfather -- then in his 40s -- joined up with the British because he was outraged by the fact that the Germans had massacred up to 6,000 Belgium civilians within the first few weeks of the occupation.
He didn't do it for the allowance money, or because he couldn't find work -- in fact he was a self-employed carpenter of considerable skill.
He survived the war, but suffered terrible psychological effects. He was typical of the brave, spirited Irishmen that Dr FitzGerald saw fit to insult.
In 2004, Alan Kramer, senior lecturer in European History in Trinity College Dublin, presented his findings into the Dinant killings and others by the German military in Belgium and concluded that more than 6,000 Belgium civilians had indeed been murdered as part of German war policy.
German atrocities in Belgium had an enormous catalytic effect in rallying thousands of young nationalist Irishmen to Redmond's call to arms in defence of religious liberty, and freedom.
It is a pity that Dr FitzGerald did not have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge the sacrifice of the best of Ireland's manhood in a cause which -- at least in the early stages -- was seen as noble and right.
My great-grandfather and his comrades could not have foreseen the unfolding narrative of horror that would define the great conflict of which they were part.
Pierce Martin
Celbridge, Co Kildare
Irish Independent
