Nick Maxwell Sir,—I refer to Seán Kelleher’s letter (HI, Sept./Oct. 2012) about my chapter on Kilmichael in David Fitzpatrick’s (ed.) Terror in Ireland. Mr Kelleher argues that Jack Hennessy’s Bureau of Military History (BMH) statement contains an account of a false surrender by the Auxiliaries, while simultaneously asserting that such surrender caused the ‘fatal wounding of three … Read more
‘I knew Lynch very well because he had been minister for finance when I had been chancellor. For years before I knew him and thought him to be a very sensible man, and when he said he was going to put hospital beds on the borders, I thought “How absurd! What’s gone wrong with you?” … Read more
Sir,—May I point out an error in the article on counties, palatinates, boroughs and ridings in the last issue (HI 20.5, Sept./Oct. 2012)? County Clare (now Clarecastle), which was briefly named as the county town by Elizabethan administrators in the 1570s. This is attested to in the Annals of the Four Masters (James Frost, The history … Read more
Contrary to a widespread impression, the British political élite actually had a reasonable degree of acquaintance with Northern Ireland, and Ireland as a whole, before the Troubles broke out. (Denis Healey’s grandfather, born in Enniskillen, was a Fenian, and his father retained a strong enough sense of Irishness to heckle ‘What about Ireland, Major Healey?’ … Read more
Sir,—In view of its special attention to the Irish role in the American Civil War, there’s a curious omission in Kevin Haddick Flynn’s article (HI 20.5, Sept./Oct. 2012). It makes no mention of General Philip Sheridan, easily the most important Irish figure in the conflict, certainly a much bigger player than Thomas Francis Meagher, Michael … Read more