Sir, - Your editorial of October 13th stated, in relation to the State commemoration for the young Republican activists executed in 1921, that "it is entirely proper to honour those whose endeavours and sacrifice helped to bring the State into existence". Few would disagree.
However, while those who were involved in the national struggle can be said to have won the right to an independent State, within two decades its independence was threatened by the outbreak of war in 1939. At that time the lack of ships required to carry essential imports such as wheat and oil and the withdrawal of ships from our register to the British register threatened Ireland's independence and neutrality. This situation was redressed by State acquisition of a fleet of old ships, some in scrapyard condition, which were manned and maintained by the country's seafarers.
That the service given by its seamen saved the country was acknowledged by Commodore Peter Kavanagh, officer of the Naval Service, who said: "The role played by merchant shipping during World War II, upon which our survival as a neutral nation depended, was largely unrecorded." The men of the sea who gave such sterling service attracted few accolades. Except for rare and passing assurances that their contribution would not be forgotten it has, in fact, never been acknowledged by the State, except for personal medals to the seamen and their relatives.
In his carefully researched book The Long Watch, master mariner Frank Forde pointed out that of a possible 800 seamen who served on Irish flag vessels during the second World War, 149 - almost 20 per cent - were lost. This is a horrendous proportion compared with military or naval experience.
In recent times the Maritime Institute of Ireland has repeated representations it has made to the State since 1947 for a memorial to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the country between 1939 and 1945. This, it proposed, should take the form of a memorial maritime museum on the Carlisle Pier in Dun Laoghaire. - Yours, etc.,
Desmond Branigan, President, Maritime Institute of Ireland, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.