Military Honours
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16
============================================================

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

I support what Deputy O'Hara is asking for. I happened to be present at the presentation of a medal in 2019 to the family of Joe Murphy. It was presented to his nephew Henry Delaney and is a source of great pride to that family. If the evidence is there, these medals are very important to families and the local community.
A issue that was raised with me by Jim Hegarty, a nephew of John Joe Hegarty who was a member of the old IRA, is that the rank of the volunteers seems to have been in records recognised in relation to the pro-Treaty side but not for the anti-Treaty side. The rank of those who fought in the Tan War and the War of Independence should be restored to those who fought on the anti-Treaty side subsequently.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16