Sir, – I write this in memory of my father and indeed his comrades who served in the Army of this country during the Emergency.
It seems Minister for Justice Alan Shatter’s Bill (Home News, May 8th) will give an amnesty and immunity to those who deserted the Army during our fledgling State’s direst need, allegedly to fight for the Allies.
The British, with American help and Northern unionist connivance, were prepared to invade our new State. Were these deserters prepared to engage in this invasion with an army who less than 17 years earlier had been kicked out of Ireland? Were they prepared to maim and kill a people who had courageously fought this same British army for hundreds of years and its small army (with its outdated weapons), of which my father was a proud member? Has any politician or journalist asked questions about this Bill? – Yours, etc,
PATRICK TALBOT
Published by the Irish Times