DREYFUS was framed, disgraced, publicly stripped of his epaulettes, had his sword broken and sentenced to imprisonment on Devil’s Island. Years later his treatment was exposed and the sentence put aside. He was restored to the Army, promoted to Colonel and fought in the Great War.
Ireland has no Devil’s Island, and the attempt to have Captain Kelly convicted of illegal Arms importation was thrown out by a conscientious jury despite its attempted bullying by the presiding judge, The Dail sought to retry the case but was thwarted by Chief Justice Cearbhall O Dalaigh who noted that the attempt was one which conflicted with the belief of our ancestors that letting the dogs free and the tying down the stones (madrai scaoilte agus clocha ceangailte) was not fair play.
Our remote ancestors’ idea of fair play was “Cothrom na Feinne” the code of the Fenians, Fianna Eireann aka Fianna Fail. Jack Lynch the hurling legend jettisoned that code when he betrayed Captain Kelly, who unlike Dreyfus, was never restored to his profession.
In a self-interested side-swipe at right-wing rivals, President Macron considered posthumously promoting Dreyfus to the rank of General.
Perhaps Micheal Martin, Jack Lynch’s Vicar on Earth, will at last do the right thing by the dutiful Captain and promote him to General.
Before he died Captain Kelly won a libel case against Garret Fitzgerald, the apparently mild-mannered gentleman who had a penchant for discrediting better men than himself. Garrett had held that Captain Kelly had been guilty of the crime for which he had been acquitted by an honest jury.
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