It is with some reluctance I have been compelled to raise this matter in this fashion. I put down a question to the Minister for Finance the other day in which I asked him on what evidence a number of claims for personal injuries were turned down. I expected on the part of the Minister some sympathetic reply. That is to say, I expected a reply in which he would indicate that the Ministry were prepared to give some consideration to cases where substantial evidence could be brought forward that personal injuries had been sustained. On the contrary, I found an attitude displayed by the Minister which left me no option whatever but to bring forward the matter in this fashion. I am so old-fashioned as to imagine that a Government is responsible for the safety of its citizens, and that when a war of defence or offence is entered into by that Government, it is responsible for compensating those who were injured in that war. Those responsible for the honour of the State are responsible for compensating parties who were injured. We are told that there has been a continuity of Government since the first Dáil. There must then be a continuity of responsibility, and if the war of defence, engaged in by the first Dáil, brought certain penalties in its train to certain people, then the continuity of responsibility for providing for people who were injured rests upon the State.
Let us try to visualise the state of the country in 1920. Possibly Clare suffered as much as any other county and I could wax rhetorical, perhaps eloquent, if I were to describe to you some of the things that happened in that county. Some time towards the end of September, 1920, there was an ambush between the towns of Lahinch and Milltown-Malbay, brought about by the Republican Army, in which the Crown Forces suffered severely, some twenty, it is said, being killed or mortally injured. That brought about reprisals on the two towns, one of which is at either end of that road. Armed forces descended on Lahinch a few nights afterwards with petrol, bomb, and machine-gun, and the people were driven from their homes into the sandhills. I do not want to harrow the feelings of Deputies by describing how the people suffered on the sandhills. Their homes were set on fire. Women and children and old people were driven before the bomb and the bullet, and English bloodhounds and jackals were left to desecrate and waste the homes that were left behind.
I could draw a picture if I liked of these people standing between the sea and their burned homesteads, and I could describe what tragedies occurred, tragedies none the less terrible because they were silent revulsions of nature, because of disobedience to an inexorable code. I am endeavouring to deal with matters of a very delicate nature, and the Minister may try to understand by implication what I mean, as I do not wish to express it. When the people made application to the Government—a Government established by their sacrifices—they were turned down without any opportunity being given them to bring forward evidence.
I have the unfortunate experience of knowing that concrete examples irritate the Minister. However, I will produce another concrete example. I will give the Minister the case of one young lady who was driven from the sanctity of her home in her night attire to the sandhills. I will read what the doctor says about her now. She was living in Lahinch, a happy, healthy girl. She was driven forth to the sandhills. Here is what the doctor says referring to her condition now:
As a result of the exposure, shock and terror, her health has suffered severely.... She developed a cough and became very anæmic. She has not been able to do any work practically since on account of loss of strength, headache, and vomiting. She is a nervous wreck.
I have seen other nervous wrecks as a result of the struggle and exposure.
Let us see what an ex-captain of Fianna Eireann, and an ex-captain of the I.R.A. says:
We, the undersigned, willingly testify to the invaluable services rendered by Miss —— during the Anglo-Irish war. During that period she gave every assistance in her power to the I.R.A. in the way of providing ammunition, carrying dispatches, and providing food and shelter for the boys who were on the run at the time. It was owing to the information which she obtained previous to the ambush at Moanreel that the activities of the Crown forces were thwarted. Otherwise the I.R.A. would have been taken unawares and captured. Many a Volunteer living to-day owes his life to the assistance rendered by this girl.
What does the Ministry of Finance say to her? This evidence was before the committee. I do not know if it was before the Ministry of Finance, but I know that a document was sent out from the Ministry of Finance—a stock letter. I have seen scores of these letters. The letter says:
It is regretted that no compensation is payable in this case.
Is that a fair way to treat this girl? She is only a sample of many others.
Let us go to the other end of the road in which the ambush took place, to Milltown-Malbay, and we find much the same story. When there were a number of men in Mountjoy jail clinging to life by a thread, on hunger strike, the Irish Labour Party sent down instructions that a "greased lightning" strike, as it was then called, should be inaugurated in order to get those men out of jail, and save their lives for the country. That strike went on in Clare. The whole place was held up, and when the victory was won by labour for these men by the strike, these men went out to Canada Cross, a place outside the town, to celebrate the victory, and what do we find? The Black and Tans fired on them. Some of them were killed, and some badly wounded. We find that one of the men who was killed was a tailor. He was the sole support of his sister, and what do we find? We find that his claim was turned down by the Commission. We find that a man thatching a hay-rick was mortally wounded, dying afterwards owing to the rupture of a blood vessel. The claim of his relatives was turned down. Then there is the case of a baker who was wounded in the arm, and, who, as the result, could not carry on his occupation for 11 months afterwards. His claim, too, was turned down. I do not know if all these facts are before the Ministry. But I know this, that I do expect from the Ministry of Finance further investigation into all these cases, where concrete evidence can be adduced that they are cases of real suffering and hardship, and cases where compensation could reasonably be expected from the Government.
Possibly the whole scheme of Irish patriotism is changed and what was roseate in 1920 is black, grey and drab to-day. The people who suffered in this connection, people whose health has been destroyed, and who are unable to carry on their occupation in the future, should at least get some help from the Government. When we see the very people, who carried on the war against this country, are, under the terms of the Treaty, supposed to be paid, and I quite realise that they must be paid, these people who suffered for the cause should be compensated. I want to ask the Minister for Finance if there is any clause in this nation's treaty of honour towards these people who suffered when Irish freedom was being hammered out—is there any clause, with honour and justice, to remain inoperative in the cases I have endeavoured to bring before you?