Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said it is “a shame” that some politicians have decided to boycott a State commemoration for members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) who were killed during the War of Independence.

The Taoiseach said Irish members of the two police forces should be commemorated in the same way as Irish soldiers are remembered for their role in fighting with the British Army in World War One.

Mr Varadkar’s intervention comes after Fianna Fail Mayor of Clare Cathal Crowe said he would not be attending the commemoration in Dublin Castle because he believed it to be a “betrayal” of those who fought for Irish freedom.

Meanwhile, the Lord Mayor of Cork City John Sheehan has become the latest politician who says he will boycott a commemoration.

The Fianna Fail councillor said he feels his attendance would be “inappropriate” as a former holder of his office, Tomás MacCurtain was shot dead by RIC members during the War of Independence.

The Taoiseach said 10 or 15 years ago it was “very controversial” to commemorate the deaths of soldiers in World War One as some people believed they should not be remembered because they fought for the British.

“That has changed,” he said, before adding: “Now we all accept, or almost all of us accept, that it is right and proper to remember Irish people, soldiers, who died in the First World War and I think the same thing really applies to police officers who were killed – Catholic and Protestant alike who were members of the RIC and the DMP.”

Mr Varadkar said the families of the police officers who were killed are still alive and would like to remember them.  “I think it’s a shame that people are boycotting it but the Government stands over the decision to hold it (the commemoration),” he added

In a statement on Sunday, Mr Crowe, who is a Fianna Fail general election candidate, said he had no “ill feeling” towards those who served in the RIC, adding that “many of them were decent people”.

“I do however think it’s wrong to celebrate and eulogise an organisation that was the strong-arm of the British state in Ireland. The RIC joined army and auxiliaries (Black & Tans) in search parties and raids that resulted in our country-people being killed / tortured or having their homes torched,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Sheehan told Independent.ie that there will be events this year in Cork remembering Thomás MacCurtain and another mayor of the city, Terence McSwiney who died in 1920.

“The idea that I would go to a commemoration wearing the same chains that he [Mr MacCurtain] wore to commemorate the RIC would be totally inappropriate.”

Mr Sheehan said that’s not to take away from individuals who had family members who joined the RIC to “better themselves” or in the belief that they were serving their country.

“But to commemorate the RIC as an institution given its history in Cork I don’t think would be appropriate,” Mr Sheehan added.

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