Bandon Valley Massacre: Many in Republic of Ireland still loyal to GB but must keep their heads down, says man whose great-grandfather survived IRA massacre & More News Here

Ian Beamish contacted the News Letter after studying the story of Neale Jagoe, who now lives in Ballycastle.

In final week’s News Letter Mr Jagoe referred to as on the Irish authorities to give official recognition to the IRA’s sectarian massacre of 13 Protestant boys and males in the Bandon Valley Massacre of 1922 – and the next exodus of a whole bunch of terrified others.

Neale Jagoe’s nice grandfather William and nice grandmother Elizabeth Jagoe had been amongst those that fled the realm after he was tipped off he was to be shot. They later discovered protected refuge in Belfast.

After studying the story Ian Beamish, who now lives in Limerick but who’s from the Bandon valley space, contacted the News Letter.

“I am originally from Dunmanway, Co Cork, and I fully identify with and understand his feelings,” he advised the News Letter. “My grandfather and grandmother also lived through those times. “They too, had to escape across the fields trying to keep my father, then an infant, quiet after being tipped off that my grandfather was to be shot.”

They returned house a number of days later when the bloodshed ended.

“They would have known Mr Jagoe’s relatives, they would have done to the same church.”

Mr Beamish stated he attended Bandon Grammar School in the early Eighties, which was initially Church of Ireland, and as such confronted common sectarian abuse on the varsity bus.

“We used to get it on the school bus. You would have abuse hurled at you like ‘black b******s’ and spat at. And there would have been slogans on the wall, ‘Brits Out’ and things like that.

“If you said anything supportive of Britain you would have been looked on with suspicion really. The day Bobby Sands died [in 1981] the headmaster brought us in for a special assembly and said that if parents wanted to collect us and bring us home, they could; because if they saw the school badge downtown they would automatically look at you as a Prod or a Brit.”

His household identify, Beamish, is French-Norman and his forebears arrived in Ireland some 450 years in the past by way of England, but rising up he was frequently advised he was not Irish.

“People in Northern Ireland need to understand that this is the type of thing they will face if they enter a united Ireland,” he added. 

As a consequence, he still sees himself as British. “What exactly constitutes being Irish anyway?” he requested. “There would still be many people in the south who hold this identity [British] but they keep it very couched. You have to be true to yourself, your heritage and your conviction.” 

His household was one of the primary 80 to settle in the Bandon space 450 years in the past. “So when some people tell us that you are not Irish, that is like saying people in north America aren’t American, as we were here in Ireland before America was founded.”

The hosility would significantly come from “hardcore older republican families” and be focussed on “anyone from a Protestant background” he says.

There are “many good people” from Irish Catholic backgrounds who beforehand served in the UK armed forces and would frequent British Legion branches in the south, which has grow to be extra acceptable because the Eighties, he stated. “But anyone who joins up now would still stay away, they wouldn’t come back, or if they did they wouldn’t say publicly [what they are doing]. People want a quiet life and – if you are in business for example – you don’t want to draw attention to yourself.”

He agrees with Neale that the Irish state ought to have visibly taken half in the latest centenary commemoration of the Bandon Valley Massacre which was organised by the Church of Ireland.

“As Neale said, a great wrong was done. If the state was genuine then the President should have attended. [Taoiseach] Michael Martin should have been there too. The big fear that I see is that people in Northern Ireland should just look at what happened in the Republic because it will happen to you too if people can’t be bothered voting. It is going to affect you one way or another. Down here your identity – everything – is just taken over.” 

The two males are to meet up this week as Mr Beamish was making a visit to Coleraine. Mr Jagoe stated the contact from Mr Beamish left him feeling “quite emotional” and that he was “delighted” to be assembly Mr Beamish.

The Taoiseach’s workplace has not responded to a number of requests for remark in the previous week.