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The monument to the Royal Munster Fusiliers in Ballymullen.
TRALEE councillors have agreed that they would like to change the wording on the new Ballymullen monument which has caused controversy in recent weeks.
A local resident raised objections that there was no public consultation with the public prior to erecting a monument to a British Army regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers, in the Christ the King Park in Ballymullen. The wording on the monument is ‘Let Us Remember The Royal Munster Fusiliers – 1914-1918.’
Cllr Sam Locke (Ind), who had relations who fought for the regiment, put forward an emergency motion at the Tralee Municipal Area meeting on Monday, that he wanted the Council to further enhance the monument by including the names of those who died from Tralee on the monument, or erecting another plaque nearby.
He said that the men who joined the Fusiliers did so out of necessity to feed their families rather than any loyalty to the Crown and many of them subsequently went on to fight for Irish independence.
Cllr Locke said he had been approached by family members of these men, who would like to see their names published on the monument.
Cllr Pa Daly (Sinn Fein), said he too had a relative who died in World War 1 and didn’t have a problem honouring the people from the town who died during the conflict in World War 1.
However, he did have a problem with the monument being dedicated solely to the Munster Fusiliers regiment as more than half the Tralee people who died were in other regiments fighting for both the British and other countries around the world.
Cllr Daly proposed to change the wording to ‘To Remember The Men of Tralee Who Died in World War 1’ and that it would be almost impossible to inscribe the names of all the people on the memorial or plaque.
Cllr Toireasa Ferris (Sinn Fein) agreed and proposed ‘All Tralee People Who Lost Their Lives During World War 1’ in case a historian later found there were some women from town who died in the conflict.
Cllr Locke agreed with this and asked Council Management could this be done. He also asked if a list of those Tralee people who died in the Great War could be compiled in the future.
John Breen of Kerry County Council said they would have to go back to the sculptor and see how practical it is to make the changes. He said the last thing they want to do is have a monument where it has been recognisably altered.
He said it will either be done on the present monument or re-cast. He also said they would look into the issue of the list of names.
