Tomorrow marks 100 years since the unlawful executions of Liam Mellows, Rory O'Connor, Joe McKelvey and one of west Cork's greatest sons, Dick Barrett. They were executed without trial or charge by the order of the Executive of the newly formed Free State Government. The executions were done as a reprisal for the sad and tragic killing of Deputy Seán Hales, a killing which these four men had no hand, act or part in. The event was described in a Dáil debate 100 years ago as, "Murder most foul, bloody and unnatural". The State has never acknowledged that these killings were illegal or wrong. The Taoiseach has said these killings were murder by any definition. Today, almost 100 years since those executions, I ask that the Government finally acknowledge that these killings were manifestly illegal and wrong.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Through the decade of centenaries, as a country, we have managed to remember, enlighten and give a greater, more informed perspective to our difficult and traumatic past, particularly at the time of the formation of the new State. I gave a more comprehensive and informed perspective on these issues in three significant speeches I gave on the Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921, in Trinity College Dublin, on the Civil War, in University College Cork, and on the formation of the Free State, in University College Dublin last Friday. The murder of Seán Hales was a terrible crime, objectively, not from looking back now on the past. The Deputy is correct that the contemporary Dáil records show that it was an extremely traumatic and bitter time in our history, particularly the contribution from the late Thomas Johnson of the Labour Party, in a significant speech where he called it out that week. What happened to those four young men at that time was not in accordance with the law. As I said, it represented murder.