Sir,—Fergus Whelan’s fascinating article on Cromwell and Irish republicanism (HI 18.6, Nov./Dec. 2010) brought to mind two interesting parallels between the Irish republicans of 1798 and the English republicans of a century and a half earlier. The Roundheads and Croppies both wore their hair short as a badge, and both Levellers and United Irishmen adopted green as their colour (although the ‘official’ national colour of Ireland was, and still is, blue). I am not sure that we have yet got to the bottom of this strange twist of history.—Yours etc.,
STEPHEN LALOR
Dublin