Nick Maxwell Sir, —Nowhere in the (fresh) outpouring of Bloomsdayana—not even Daniel Mulhall’s excellent article (HI 12.2, Summer 2004) on the Irish history that is embedded in Ulysses—is there any sign of Professor Davis’s important discovery, so perhaps a reminder is called for. Richard Davis’s masterful biography of William Smith O’Brien, Revolutionary Imperialist (1998), repeated what we … Read more
Sir, —Further to Liam Ó Ruairc’s review of my Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter (HI 12.1, Spring 2004), Brian Hanley has raised points (HI 12.2, Summer 2004) that need clarification. I have found no evidence that Tom Barry left the IRA in 1923. On 11 July 1923, Barry wrote to the chairman of … Read more
Sir, —In his examiner’s report on my Harry Boland’s Irish Revolution (HI 12.2, Summer 2004), Manus O’Riordan awards me ‘9 out of 10 as to balanced presentation of a voluminous amount of evidence’, but a miserable fail in applying my ‘declared aim of impartiality’ to the ‘accompanying commentary’. Though I declared no such aims in … Read more
Cúchulainn at the K Club? For those of us who are parents, this time of year is forever associated with that bitter-sweet experience of seeing our offspring head off to a new year in school, college or university (especially if it is for the first time). A vague feeling of melancholy is tempered by the … Read more
Sir ,—Brendan Bradshaw’s interview technique in relation to Tim Pat Coogan (HI 12.2, Summer 2004) was anodyne in the extreme. The nationally minded renowned academic Professor Bradshaw afforded the green light to Mr Coogan in every sense of the word, allowing him to propagate, unchallenged, his Gaedhil distorted nationalist image of Irish history. Mr … Read more