Some 15 members of Republican Sinn Féin picketed Kerry County Museum in Tralee yesterday, the 90th anniversary of the death of patriot Thomas Ashe, because it is hosting an exhibition on the life of British spy and Fenian chaser William Melville.
Ashe, a native of Lispole in west Kerry, died on hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison in 1917 and the museum - one of the town's key tourist attractions - is named after him.
Melville was the head of Scotland Yard's detective branch and founder of the British spy organisation that became MI5 and MI6. It is thought novelist Ian Fleming based his character "M" on Melville in his James Bond books.
Born near Sneem, he joined the London police and by 1883 was one of the leading members of the special detective branch targeting the Fenian movement and terrorist attacks.
In 1887 he foiled an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria, the so-called Jubilee Plot.
A whole section of the exhibition in Tralee is devoted to his work and is called "Fenian Fire".
Yesterday, outside the Ashe Memorial Hall, spokesman for Republican Sinn Féin Matt Leen said: "This place is called after Thomas Ashe. Melville's cohorts force-fed Ashe and actually murdered him.
"Can we now expect an exhibition on the Black and Tans or Oliver Cromwell in this museum?"
He called on all Kerry politicians to state where they stood on the exhibition and urged Tralee Town Council, owners of the museum, to close down the exhibition.
Tourists visiting the museum filed past. One English tour guide on a Cosmos bus said she had warned her mainly English and American charges before arriving that Co Kerry was "a bit steeped in the past and fiercely republican".
Two students from a nearby boys school shouted "Come on ye British spies" as they made their way past the protest and the tourist buses at lunchtime.
Museum curator Helen O'Carroll defended the large interactive exhibition, which cost €60,000 to stage. Melville always considered himself Irish and was proud of his roots.
"The Irish identity is not static," Ms O'Carroll said, adding that the majority of people at the time would, like Melville, have been committed to home rule.
She said she would not close the exhibition, which will run until next year, and she did not rule out hosting a big show on Cromwell or the Black and Tans.
"Every generation has to look at their history. Why not have an exhibition on the Black and Tans?" Ms O'Carroll said
"I think it's great they [the protesters] care so much about this museum and I wish everyone else would care so much. I don't happen to agree with them on this," she said.