Sir, —Rory O’Dwyer gives an interesting account of the EucharisticCongress of 1932 (HI 15.6, Nov./Dec. 2007). I am rather disappointed,though in no way surprised, given the nexus of interconnected interestsbetween the almost permanent government of Fianna Fáil and all strandsof Irish society, that he does not mention W. T. Cosgrave or theprevious Cumann na nGaedheal … Read more
First of all, my thanks to Mr Ó Cinneide for sharing his memories of his FCA service (HI 20.2, March/April 2012, Letters). All too few former members of the force have done so, and official records are quite sparse. The FCA did indeed wear a slightly shorter jacket than their regular army counterparts, but any … Read more
Sir, —I enjoy your magazine very much. It’s always full of good readingand interesting articles. However, it can also be infuriating (notnecessarily a bad thing from an editorial point of view). I’d like topoint out a few irritants from the two most recent issues. What are extremely lengthy—four pages in all—reviews of Long Day’sJourney into … Read more
Sir, —Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh, in her account of the trials of sportswomen in mid-twentieth-century Ireland (‘Internal tamponage, hockey parturition and mixed athletics’, HI 15.6, Nov./Dec. 2007), ridicules the opinions of the late John Charles McQuaid, Catholic archbishop of Dublin, and of Dr Stafford Johnson on the subject of menstrual tampons. Dr McQuaid in particular seems … Read more
Sir,—In reply to Jeffery Dudgeon (HI 20.2, March/April 2010, Letters), the debate about whether the late Peter Hart is guilty of calling the Dunmanway massacre ‘ethnic cleansing’ has gone on far too long. In his article ‘Class, community, and the Irish Republican Army in Cork’, in Cork: history and society (1993), he stated (p. 980) … Read more