TAOISEACH AND LEADER of Fianna Fáil Micheál Martin has said he did not direct a party TD to correct claims he made yesterday that the British Army never bombed or shot civilians in Ireland.

Clare TD Cathal Crowe this morning apologised “profusely” for the comments and corrected the Dáil record.

He made the original remark during a Labour motion calling for the Irish government to bring an emergency resolution to the UN General Assembly, calling out the blockade of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Speaking during the debate, Crowe remarked that while the 7 October 2023 should be condemned, the Israeli state has since adopted an “indefensible eye-for-an-eye approach”.

“What is happening is not a war anymore; it is ethnic cleansing, genocide and, more recently, the weaponising of food,” said Crowe.

He then added: “The British army was a bad actor on this island for many centuries but even in the worst of days, when its cities were being bombed by the terror organisations of the IRA, it never retaliated by bombing and shooting the civilian population of Ireland.”

Crowe added: “I, too, studied history in college. The Israeli people have a very tragic history of their own.  Looking at the CVs of several [Israeli] Cabinet ministers, they are children of survivors of the Holocaust.

“They should understand better than anyone what genocide, the loss of life, the weaponising of food and the killing of children involve. They do not.”

Reaction to comments overblown – Taoiseach

Speaking to reporters in Dublin, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the reaction the Crowe’s comments during the motion’s debate were overblown, telling reporters he did not believe the remarks warranted so much attention.

The motion was co-signed by Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Green Party and Independent TD Catherine Connolly, while the government did not oppose it.

Speaking later, Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh called on Crowe to apologise for the remarks and to “correct the record” for his “false” and “appalling” remarks to the Dáil.

“I fear for what the schoolchildren he taught learned from this self-proclaimed ‘passionate historian’ if this is the level of ignorance and revisionism he displays as in elected office,” said Ó Snodaigh.

“In his attempt to rewrite history, Crowe is erasing the countless victims of British state violence in Ireland, North and South, victims and families who continue to fight for justice to this day.”

Ó Snodaigh remarked that the Troubles were “defined by the brutal murder of civilians by the British army, from the Ballymurphy massacre to Bloody Sunday”.

The Sinn Féin TD also pointed to the British forces opening fire on a GAA match in Croke Park on the Bloody Sunday of 1920, killing 14 people.

Ó Snodaigh also said that the British forces “went on to facilitate the bombings of 1974 which took the lives of people in Dublin and Monaghan”.

A total of 34 people, including a full-term unborn child, were killed in three no-warning bombs across Dublin and Monaghan on 17 May, 1974.

Operation Denton is investigating the activities of the Glenanne gang, which is suspected of being involved in the bombings.

Head of the investigation Iain Livingstone told RTÉ last year that there was collusion between the gang and the British security services. This review was expected to be published by the end of April but is now due to be published at the end of October.  

“Crowe made these comments in the context of the ‘many centuries’ of British activity in Ireland, apparently unaware of Oliver Cromwell and the thousands massacred in Drogheda and across the country,” said Ó Snodaigh.

“The historic parallels between British actions here and Israel’s actions in Palestine might be difficult to understand for someone whose party seems comfortable celebrating William the Conqueror.

“It’s probably time, however, for Fianna Fáil to drop the title of ‘Republican Party’ if they are unaware of the British ever shooting civilians in Ireland.”

Ó Snodaigh called on Crowe to make a “full apology to the victims of British violence specifically and to the wider Irish public”.

“I would also invite him to actually take up the cause of Seán Brown and all those killed by British forces and use his position to demand justice, rather than erasing their truth.”

Séan Brown, 61, the then chairman of Wolfe Tones GAA Club in the Co Derry town of Bellaghy, was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered by loyalist paramilitaries as he locked the gates of the club in May 1997.

No-one has ever been convicted of his killing. It was also alleged in court that surveillance of a suspect in the murder was temporarily stopped on the evening of the killing, only to resume again the following morning.

Preliminary inquest proceedings last year heard that in excess of 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.

An Taoiseach today said that there is “no need to be re-fighting old wars”. While he accepted that the British state were behind many attacks on Irish civilians in the past, Martin highlighted equally brutal attacks by the IRA on the population also.

Asked if he recommended Crowe apologise, Martin said: “Certainly not.”

“I think Cathal’s views on the north are well-known. Cathal’s views – he studied history himself – are well-known. He doesn’t been to be correcting things, as far as I’m concerned.”

Apology

Addressing the Dáil this morning, Crowe said he wished to correct the record and “also apologise profusely to anyone that may have been offended” by his comments. 

“I was speaking without a scripted speech, and instead, using a series of bullet points,” he said.

Crowe said he wanted to make the point that “brutal, bad and all as the British armed forces have been on this island for a very long time, they never resorted to sending over the Royal Air Force tanks and missiles to pummel Irish cities.”

“Regrettably, speaking largely off the cuff, I clumsily and wrongly stated, and I quote, ‘they never retaliated by bombing or shooting the civilian population of Ireland’, unquote,” Crowe said.

“Let me be very clear, it was not my intention to say this, and I didn’t realise how woeful all of that sounded until late last night when I received the transcript of what I had actually said.

“It was a genuine slip-up on my part, but it was wrong, and I wish to today unequivocally and profusely apologise. I studied history in college and taught history in the classroom. I am a Republican, and many of you will remember the boycott that I led in early 2020 to oppose a planned state commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary. 

“I know that the British armed forces have been involved in many heinous attacks on Irish people, historically,” he said.

Crowe said his own family also suffered at the hands of the British military in the past and said that he wanted to apologise to victims of “British State terror and atrocities”. 

He said he also wanted to apologise to people who care about Irish history and accuracy.

“I want to see a United Ireland, and I yearn for a day that there are no more British military personnel on this island,” he said.

“The next time that I speak on any of these matters, I’ll use a better prepared speaking note that accurately conveys what I wish to say, rather than speaking off the cuff and causing unintentional hurt and offence.”

With reporting from Jane Matthews and Muiris Ó Cearbhaill