Nick Maxwell

Sir,—Apropos John M. Regan’s review of Ronan McGreevy’s Great Hatred (HI 30.3, May/June 2022). ‘I am an Irishman, born in County Longford’ stated Henry Wilson during the course of a speech given at Caxton Hall in London in May 1922 (Northern Whig, 10 May 1922). Wilson stated this throughout his life and to the best of my knowledge anything biographical … Read more

An article on ‘The Radical Club: a 1920s forum for “progressive cultural activity”’ (HI 27.5, Sept./Oct. 2019) referred to a debate at that club on Joyce’s Ulysses in which Liam O’Flaherty and ‘MacManus’ (as identified in Rosamond Jacob’s diaries) were the antagonists. The article’s author, Brian Trench, named Francis MacManus as the debater but now … Read more

Sir,—Martin Greene (‘Bram Stoker’s “Great Game”?’, HI 30.4, July/Aug. 2022) refers to the term ‘Great Game’ being in use ‘among British military officials in India’ from the Afghan wars onwards (that is from 1838 up to the date of Kipling’s Kim (1901). The first recorded use is in 1840, when Capt. Arthur Conolly wrote ‘If … Read more

Sir,—Dr Thomas Tormey may have the better of me where he identifies a ‘democratic deficit’ during the Civil War, rather than the ‘military-dictatorship’ under Michael Collins I referenced in my review of Ronan McGreevy’s new book on Sir Henry Wilson. To be clear, no one has ever challenged the evidential basis on which my description … Read more

Sir—In a review of Eve Morrison’s Kilmichael: The Life and Afterlife of an Ambush (HI 30.3 May/June 2022), Gerry White wrote that Morrison ‘spoke to a number of people who had an interest in the ambush. Notable exceptions are the papers of Tom Barry himself to which Morrison claims she was denied access and insights … Read more