Nick Maxwell Sir,—I agree with Brian Hanley (HI Spring 1999) that ‘the conflictssurrounding Poppy Day in the ‘20s and ‘30s were more complexthan present-day commentators have allowed’.One-hundred-and-seventy-thousand out of 180,000 Volunteers had remainedloyal to their elected political leader in his constitutional approach.A significant number had put their lives on the line on the Somme andother battlefields. Afterwards … Read more
Sir,—I am researching the Ancient Britons fencible cavalry’s activitiesin Ireland before, during and after the 1798 Rebellion. Beingparticularly interested in the mythic as well as factual aspects oftheir involvement in 1790s Ireland, I wish to explore just why twocenturies on they still epitomise unchecked brutality and atrocity.That this body of North Welsh cavalry went from … Read more
Sir,—Re criticism of my Irish Voices from the Great War in the lastissue (‘Letters’). I am sorry your correspondent was disappointed bythe volume. I am quite prepared to acknowledge that it is possible Iwas misled. But I draw the reader’s attention to my caveat in theintroduction where I gave fair warning that some of the … Read more
Sir,—I refer to the article by Steven G. Ellis in your Spring 1999 issue, ‘“More Irish Than the Irish Themselves”? the “Anglo-Irish” in Tudor Ireland’. For the Tudor period especially, Dr Ellis attempts to restore to the people he calls ‘the English of Ireland’ their English identity, and argues that our modern Irish identity is … Read more
If you are exploring the labyrinthine pathways to Ulster’s past, you are likely to welcome the appearance of this guide by Peter Collins. It is a great boon to have the mysteries of the myriad records, and those of the archives, museums and libraries in which they repose, so comprehensively elucidated within the covers of … Read more