Dan Keating and his funeral

Dan Keating did not recognise the Republic of Ireland. The Irish government reciprocated and took little notice of his passing. According to the Irish Independent only one mainstream political figure attended his funeral – the recently elected Fianna Fail senator Mark Daly.

Quite pointedly the RTE’s complete coverage of Mr Keating’s death and burial was this:

The funeral has taken place of Dan Keating, the last surviving IRA veteran of the War of Independence. He was 105 years old..Mr Keating was born in Castlemaine, Co Kerry and joined the IRA while still in his teens. He was involved in ambushes during the War of Independence, including one on the night before the truce was declared. He took the Republican side during the Civil War and opposed partition for the rest of his life.

Basically RTE was saying “an old man died - now on to the tap dancing poodle”. In one sense it is a shame that the passing of the last (and not one of the last) veteran of the Irish war of independence received scant coverage but it was his choice not to recognise the Republic of Ireland/ The situation would almost certainly had been different had he not been a fanatic, clinging on to an ideology that the vast majority of Irish nationalists reject wholeheartedly.

It is in hard line Republican websites and places such as Indymedia that you see eulogies to Mr Keating:

“Dan has spoken against the GFA and the playing of Garrison games in Croke Park. He was a great inspiration to all Irish Republicans and will be sorely missed” Garrison games? - That’s Football/Soccer and Rugby Union to the world outside of the ultra-fanatical Irish Republican

“I was particularly impressed to read how refused to accept his pension from the Free State government..... It is a damn pity that they were not more like Dan.” - Correct me if I’m wrong but the term Irish Free State has not been in use since 1937. I doubt the Irish Free State would have considered awarding a pension to a man in his 30s!

Now on to other subjects....

Dan Keating dies

Dan Keating, one of the last survivors of the War of Independence (if not the last survivor) and Ireland's oldest man has died aged 105.

Born in Castlemaine, County Kerry, in January 1902, he fought in the War of Independence and later against the Free State forces in the Civil War. He was involved in two major attacks on British auxiliaries, at Castlemaine and Castleisland, where up to twelve Black and Tans troops were killed.

Keating became patron of hard-line movement Republican Sinn Féin in 2002. Party president Ruairi O’Bradaigh described him as an inspiration. “One of the last, if not the last IRA veteran of the Black and Tan war, he was Patron of Republican Sinn Fein to the very day of his death and an inspiration to all true Republicans,” Mr O’Bradaigh said.

Keating remained steadfast in his hard-line views throughout his life. He refused a state pension because he regarded the Government as fundamentally illegitimate and later refused the €2,500 centenarians award over President Mary McAleese’s increasingly close relations with the British royal family. He refused to watch his beloved Kerry in the All-Ireland final in 2006 after the GAA opened Croke Park to soccer and rugby. Keating was also among a 250-strong group of former IRA prisoners who took out a full page newspaper advert in March this year urging people not to vote for Sinn Féin iover its support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Keating’s death marks breaks one of the last direct links with the conflict that culminated in the creation of an independent Irish state. However, his stubbornrefusal to recognise the government of the Republic of Ireland, his opposition to the GAA’s decision to open Croke Park to “foreign sports” and his opposition to Sinn Fein over its support for PSNI is proof to me that age does not confer wisdom. His stance was out of utterly out of step with the vast majority of nationalists in all parts of Ireland who realise that their cause is better advanced through peaceful political means rather than continue with an ever futile conflict.

A late cousin of mine fought in the North Cork brigade of the IRA and initially opposed the Treaty. By the time WWII broke out he was in living in England and working on the development of new radar systems for the British military. He had no qualms about accepting a state pension from the Irish government and I am sure he would considered Mr Keating’s inflexibility as foolish.