Sir,—I wish to comment on Eamon O’Flaherty’s review of the Abbey Theatre’s recent production of Seán O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock (HI 19.6, Nov./Dec. 2011). While the review provides an excellent account of this latest Abbey revival, it contains a misleading historical oversight or typo. In the first two paragraphs, your reviewer places The Plough … Read more
Sir,—Fearghal McGarry’s article on the Bureau of Military History and Easter 1916 (HI 19.6, Nov./Dec. 2011) does not give credit to the first recorder of witness statements, Diarmuid Lynch. Repatriated from America to Ireland in 1932, Lynch began an active programme of contacting, interviewing and recording statements from all those of the GPO garrison who … Read more
Sir,—Tommy McKearney’s article on internment (HI 19.6, Nov./Dec. 2011) was interesting in that his own response was to join the Provisional IRA. But I fear that his background has led Mr McKearney to present an incomplete analysis in that he plays down the impact of republican violence up to August 1971. He rightly deals with … Read more
Sir,—I agree wholeheartedly with Elma Collins’s defence of the importance of history in the school curriculum (HI 91.6, Nov./Dec. 2011). However, I disagree just as strongly with one of her arguments as to why history teaching is important. Elma writes that ‘Nationalist myths went largely unexamined in the schools until the 1960s. We saw the … Read more
This book promises to give the inside story of the Black and Tans and the Auxiliary Division of the RIC, based on the official records. Unfortunately, over-reliance on those records provides a stilted and incomplete portrait of ‘the most notorious police force in the history of the British Isles’, instead of a historical roller-coaster. The records … Read more