A chara, - Over the Christmas period cowardly, mindless thugs vandalised a national monument in Fairview Park, the Sean Russell monument.
There has been for a number of years a deliberate, orchestrated attempt to misinform the public about Sean Russell's fight for Irish freedom. In some cases inflammatory remarks were made in order to score points, provoke people or highlight the speaker's own political importance.
During the European Elections last June remarks calling for the demolition of the monument on the grounds that it was a symbol of the Third Reich were not only ignorant but careless. Any incitement against tolerance leads to the path of fascism.
Sean Russell was not fascist; he was a proud, dedicated Irish Republican. On board the German U-boat with Sean Russell was the great Irish socialist Frank Ryan who fought against fascism during the Spanish Civil War.
The dirty tricks used to blemish the good name of this great Irishman are reminiscent of those used to blacken Roger Casement. Roger Casement's and Sean Russell's actions are identical.
The monument honoured not only Sean Russell but the volunteers of the 1940s, the hunger strikers Tony Darcy, Sean McNeela and Sean McCaughey. The dark 1940s in neutral Ireland saw the controversial execution of General George Plant. Charlie Kerins stood on the scaffold high, while many more were executed.
The National Graves Association will repair the damage. An appeal fund will be set up to restore this national monument. - Is mise,
MATT DOYLE, National Graves Association, Ireland, Dame Street, Dublin 2.