Question No. 441

Parliamentary Question - Dept Details

To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make an official approach requesting the British to reconsider the Shot at Dawn cases and to grant pardons to the Irish people executed -  Finian McGrath T.D. (Ind Dublin Nth Central).

*For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday 30th September 2003.

Ref No: 20317/03 - REPLY:

I refer the Deputy to my previous reply of the 19th February 2003 on this issue.

Seeking retrospective pardons for those twenty-six Irish born soldiers, who in the opinion of the Irish Shot at Dawn Campaign, were unjustly executed while serving in the British Army during the Great War, is a complicated issue. The Government is sympathetic to the objective of the Campaign but mindful that the matter has to be handled with care and sensitivity, particularly in terms of the relatives concerned.

Officials from my Department are in contact with the Irish co-ordinator of the Shot at Dawn Campaign. I understand that they are to meet with him again in the coming weeks with a view to establishing how matters might be best taken forward.