Sir, —It would appear that my plea for an objective and rationalapproach to the possibility of ethnic cleansing in 1920s Ireland fellon deaf ears with Mr Donal Kennedy (letters, July/August 2008). I findhis totally unjustified and unwarranted attempt to claim my views asakin to Nazi racist ideology deeply offensive. I did findencouragement, however, in that … Read more
Sir, —The July/August issue (Ireland and Latin America) was my firstencounter with your magazine and I enjoyed it very much, especially thearticles on Che and Cuba. However, Paddy Woodworth’s ‘Pinochet and me’made me uneasy as I felt that there was too much subjectivity and notenough objectivity. [It was billed as a ‘memoir’—Ed.] Sixty-four percent of … Read more
That neutral island: a cultural history of Ireland during the Second World War Clair Wills (Faber & Faber, €20) ISBN 9780571234479 Clair Wills’s work integrates two different approaches to history: one focusing on diplomacy and politics, the other on culture and society. She attempts to reverse the trend of concentrating on specific areas of Ireland … Read more
Prisoner of the Crown Richard Stockton Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, New York, May–July 2008 by Mark Coalter The life and legacy of Roger Casement are shrouded in paradox, controversy and conspiracy. As a liberal Edwardian figure, Casement was a celebrated British diplomat who was knighted by George V for his courageous humanitarian … Read more
Car bomber Many Rivers Films 27 July and 3 August 2008, Channel 4 by John Gibney One of the various complaints levelled against Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins (1996) on its release related to the incongruous depiction of a car bomb attack in Dublin Castle. Given that no such attack ever happened in Ireland in 1920–1, … Read more