In an exclusive interview with Gript, a descendant of Kevin Barry has slammed many of the modern political parties who celebrated the rebel last week, saying he would be “appalled at the current tyranny that reigns in this country.”
Barry, who was a young medical student and IRA volunteer during the War of Independence, was executed by the British at the age of 18 on November 1st 1920.
He has since been widely remembered and commemorated as an iconic figure who died in the cause of Irish freedom.
On Monday last week – the 101st anniversary of Barry’s execution – many Irish political parties and figureheads published social media posts praising the slain boy’s legacy, including Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.
This prompted Barry’s grand niece, Siofra O’Donovan, to reply to McDonald’s post.
“You, your party, and all the crony parties desecrate what Kevin died for,” she wrote.
“He would be appalled at the current tyranny that reigns in this country – the violations of human, constitutional and civil rights. I do not think your post is appropriate given the current situation in Dáil Éireann. Your party is as guilty as the main parties for disregarding Bunreacht na hEireann.”
In an interview with Gript, O’Donovan expanded on these remarks, saying that Irish politicians had overreached in their function with regards Covid-19 regulations.
“They forget that they are public servants,” she said.
“They dictate absurd mandates, overreach normal executive powers, exaggerate their importance in the context of public health, and in doing so violate our basic constitutional rights.”
She continued:
“We do not seem to have a constitution any more. Its articles are ignored. Perpetuating a state of emergency over a virus that has a survival rate of about 99.7% is just absurd. But to seize and maintain inflated powers using that as an excuse is nothing short of tyranny.”
She said that “governments are here to serve us, not to tyrannise us,” adding that, “ironically, under British rule, there was more freedom than there is today with the severity of the restrictions.”
The government has said that restrictions are necessary to protect the population against the Covid-19 virus.
“The social life Kevin would have lived in Dublin has vanished, unless one abides by absurd rules,” she said.
“The world in his time had just survived the Spanish Flu, which infected 100 million and took the lives of 50 million. The world had come through the most traumatic conflict it had ever seen, the Great War of 1914-18, and the Easter Rising in 1916. Yet you could still dance and be merry, even with a curfew.”
Barry, who was famously a devout Catholic, was carrying rosary beads in his pocket when he was executed. Asked what he would make of the closure of churches during the government’s Covid-19 lockdown, O’Donovan said she thought he would be strongly opposed.
“He was very religious as we can see from the various accounts of curates and priests in his final weeks before execution,” she said.
“There were no such absurd restrictions in his time, despite a much worse pandemic [Spanish Flu]. No church, no pub, no dance hall, no cinema was closed down.” She said that she thought that “being such a social person, he would have found it all very irritating.”
Asked to sum up what Barry died for in a sentence, O’Donovan said: “He died for the sovereignty of Ireland” – though she added it was now “politically incorrect” to attend an event “that honoured revolutionary heroes that gave their lives for the freedom and independence of their country.”
“Sinn Fein may appear to honour the Republic, but when it comes to honouring those who actually gave their lives for the foundation of that Republic, they may not care now as much as they might once have,” she said.
“They have entered the mainstream political arena, and this has cost them their original oppositional position. Specifically, the Rathvilly Committee for Commemoration of Kevin Barry invited Mary Lou McDonald to the unveiling of the new life size bronze statue of Kevin Barry by Willy Malone, but she was not able to attend, nor did she send a representative of Sinn Fein to attend.”
O’Donovan continued: “When it involves travelling to rural Ireland to stand in the rain and listen to speeches and observe parades, it might be too much trouble, despite the social media demonstrations of devotion to Irish revolutionaries. Every other party sent a representative, except the Greens who have no candidate in the Tullow area.”
She claimed that ultimately a local Sinn Féin councillor stepped in of his own volition, but that there was no representation “at an official level.”
“How much does Mary Lou really care?,” O’Donovan asked, adding that Sinn Féin seem to “tow all the party lines” and are “not significantly different” from the parties currently in power.
“Is she using Kevin Barry as an icon to garner sympathy and followers? Does she truly care about commemoration?” she queried.
“In some ways I feel Kevin Barry is not commemorated enough – certainly at a State level. If you compare 2020, his 100th anniversary, to even 2001 when there was a state funeral, one of the most important in the state’s history…If we do not commemorate Kevin Barry, we fail to recognise that we live in the Republic of Ireland because of such men.”