This article is from page 20 of the 2006-04-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
THOSE who were executed during the 1916 Rising are being remembered across the country this week, but thoughts are also being spared for another band of volunteers, who lost their lives in a different war.
These were the men of the First World War, who were also executed at the hands of the British. They now form the basis for the “Shot at Dawn” campaign being taken up by the Government.
Twenty-six Irishmen were executed during the war. A new report has described the treatment meted out by the British military authorities as “shocking”. One of those executed was a Clareman, Thomas Davis, from the Turnpike area of Ennis.
He was charged with quitting his post on June 22nd, 1915.
What really happened was that he suffered bad stomach cramp and had to go to the toilet.
A few hours later, he suffered another attack of cramp.
Private Davis, who was a soldier with the Munster Fusiliers, was only 21 years of age. He was taken out at 5 am on the morning of July 2, 1915 and shot by a firing squad at Gully Beach in the Aegean Sea.
Now, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern is in the vanguard of a campaign to secure a pardon for Private Davis and the 25 others executed.
“It is our objective to recover their memory from the dishonour that was done to them some 90 years ago. This week, we mark the 90th anniversary (of 1916) and later on in the year, we will remember the Battle of the Somme,” said Minister Ahern.
“For too long, the experiences of the Irishmen who fought in the first World War and the losses suffered by their families were not talked about and commemorated as they deserved,” he said.
“The British military system of justice seemed to ignore clear evidence of medical afflictions and was marked by class-bias and a disparity in the treatment of different nationalities, including particular Irish soldiers,” added Minister Ahern.