Bid to honour Kitchener opposed
by Donal Hickey

LORD KITCHENER, the Kerryman who pointed out that "Your Country Needs You" during the First World War, is about to create a war of his own years after his death.

A major row is brewing over a proposal to erect memorials in Kerry to the man described by some of his fellow countrymen as a British war criminal. Lord Kitchener, who was born at Gunsboro, near Listowel, was blamed for atrocities in the Boer War and remembered for his recruiting campaign for the British Army during WW1.

The Historic Monuments Committee of Kerry County Council will soon be considering a proposal to erect plaques to Kitchener at Gunsboro and at a church near Ballylongford, where he was baptised. Well-known Cork Irish language enthusiast Pádraig O´ Cuanachain yesterday said that objections would surely be raised to the erection of any memorial to a war criminal who was involved in atrocities against civilian populations, especially during the Boer War, in South Africa.
"He rounded up hundreds of Boer women and children, whose menfolk were away fighting, and put them behind barbed wire where they died like flies without medical attention," he said.

As Kitchener's tactics were also felt in India and Egypt, Mr O´ Cuanachain, stressing that he was speaking as a private individual, said there would undoubtedly be strong representations from Indian and Egyptian ambassadors.
Cllr Tim Buckley, said: "It's only a case of putting up a plaque so that people will know where Kitchener came from. We're not honouring him, or anything like that."