Sir,—Having read D.R. O’Connor Lysaght’s letter (HI 24.4, July/August 2016) with interest, I can only concur wholeheartedly with him that Arthur Griffith was an anti-Semite; this is fairly well known. However, what is less well known, if known at all, is that a number of others who espoused nationalism of the separatist variety were also anti-Semitic: Thomas Ashe, who died on hunger strike, believed that the First World War was instigated by Jewish profiteers; Maud Gonne McBride, daughter of a British Army colonel, frequently aired her anti-Semitic views unashamedly; Seán South (of Garryowen) regularly wrote letters to one of the local newspapers in Limerick of a very anti-Semitic nature. With such anti-Semitic beliefs as these people had, one can only wonder about the Ireland we would be living in today had they succeeded in their endeavours.—Yours etc.,
TADHG MOLONEY
Limerick