Sir,—In Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc’s Platform piece, ‘Take it down from the mast, “Irish patriots”’ (HI 28.1, Jan./Feb. 2020, pp 12–13), he writes that James Connolly believed that ‘Irish freedom would not be possible until “Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Freethinker, Buddhist and Muslim will cooperate together”’. This is rather misleading, as it suggests that Connolly was writing about domestic Irish politics. But the full quote makes clear that the ‘coming together’ of these various religions was necessary ‘to abolish the capitalist system’, which Connolly saw as a global system of oppression. He spoke of international cooperation, rather than about different religious groups within Ireland coming together to build a socialist republic, as Ó Ruairc implies. How many Buddhists and Muslims lived in Ireland during Connolly’s time? Surely a negligible number, virtually all of whom were curious converts!—Yours etc.,
DR CAOIMHÍN Ó MAOLCHALANN