The Irish penchant for necrophilia is reflected in a bulky file on the Connaught Rangers (98/2/15). In 1920 members of the regiment stationed in India mutinied in protest against Black and Tan atrocities in Ireland. Four soldiers lost their lives in, or as a result of, the mutiny.
As the 50th anniversary of this action approached, pressure increased on the Government to repatriate their remains.
The Irish ambassador in New Delhi, Valentin Iremonger, although unenthusiastic about the proposal, sent his first secretary to the Simla Hills to locate the graves. None of the clergy with whom Michael Drury discussed the matter thought it a good idea to exhume the bodies after such a long time. On the other hand, the graveyards visited by Mr Drury "are going back to nature and soon there will be no more," Mr Iremonger informed the secretary of the Department of External Affairs, Sean Ronan.
On his way back to Delhi Mr Drury stayed overnight at the Redemptorist house in Ambala, where he discovered a memoir by the chaplain who tried to stop the mutineers.
Father Baker's document illuminates this episode in Irish history.
The mutiny began in Solon on June 30th, 1920, when about 50 men raised a green flag over their hut which they called "Liberty Hall". At first the chaplain persuaded the men, led by James Joseph Daly of Tyrrellspass, to surrender their rifles on condition "that all this should be hushed up as if nothing happened".
But later 40 men with bayonets drawn, and led by Daly with a green handkerchief tied to a cane, were seen approaching the magazine, apparently intent on recovering their guns. He told the priest that the officers had broken their word.
When the raiding party came just below the magazine the officers opened fire on them, shooting Patrick Smythe and Peter Sears dead and badly wounding a third man. John Miranda died later in prison of enteric fever.
The remaining mutineers surrendered on July 2nd and were led away to the notorious Lucknow Prison. This event took place only one year after the Amritsar massacre of Indian nationalists.
Father Baker's memoir concludes: "Serious things happened at Jullundur. Some of the men were placed before the wall of a compound to be shot. They exposed their breasts to receive the volley from the firing party of the South Wales Borderers.
"Fr Leivins, the Catholic chaplain, hearing this rushed to the spot and placing himself between the Rangers and the firing squad, he raised his crucifix above his head and addressing the officer said: `Maj Payne, if you shoot one of these brave Irish boys, you will have to riddle my poor old body as well.' The shooting was stopped."
In Dublin 50 years later, the Government was "plagued" by the National Graves Association to repatriate the four bodies, while Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien raised the issue in the Dail.
Initially the Tanaiste, Frank Aiken, envisaged the repatriation of Daly only. He had been executed by court martial on November 2nd, 1920, and his next-of-kin had made representations. Under pressure from the NGA, however, the remains of Smythe and Sears were also brought home.
"Miranda is a difficult case," Mr Ronan reflected. "He supported the mutiny, was courtmartialled but died in prison. All information indicates that he was a Liverpool man, therefore it would seem strange to transfer his bones to Ireland. I doubt also if it would be right to hand over his bones to the National Graves Association for a republican burial.
"I am inclined to think that we should not repatriate his remains, although this will raise a howl from the NGA. On emotional grounds it would be easy to repatriate the remains of all four men, but in Miranda's case the British government might raise objections and if we approach them in his case we could well meet with a refusal, as in their eyes he must be regarded as something of a traitor."
Mr Ronan was "not too happy" that the NGA, "a somewhat extreme republican group", would be in charge of arrangements on behalf of the families in Ireland, but saw no real alternative.
The Government announced on October 29th, 1970, that the remains of James Daly, Patrick Smythe and Peter Sears were to be flown from India. Smythe and Sears were re-interred in Glas nevin cemetery and Daly was buried with his mother in Tyrrellspass, Co Westmeath.
President de Valera and the Taoiseach were represented at the obsequies by aides de camp.
Michael Kearney wrote from London that John Miranda "was truly a mutineer as Daly, born in Liverpool of a Spanish father and an Irish mother - nothing original in that! He, with many English conscripts were apportioned to decimated Irish regiments and like some English and Scottish decided to remain in sympathy with the mutineers, and this is his posthumous reward from a nation of ingrates."