Gael, revolutionary, soldier, chief of police, founding president of Fine Gael: during his short and controversial public life General Eoin O’Duffy played many roles. His place in the public memory, however, is largely bound up with just one of them: fascist. O’Duffy’s decision to lead the Blueshirt movement after his removal as commissioner of the … Read more
In the wake of the Second World War the pillorying of ‘Éire’ for perfidy and treachery by abrasive Stormontites caused much resentment among so-called ‘southerners’ from Donegal down, who suspected that there was more than a grain of truth in the canard that the loyalists were ‘more loyal to the half-crown than to the crown’. … Read more
Sir, —As a reader of History Ireland for a number of years I havefollowed with great interest the debate involving Peter Hart over thelast few issues. I would like to comment on his response to theprevious critical letters, and mainly view it from a historiographicalpoint of view rather than from that of a person who … Read more
Sir, —It’s good that evidence suppressed by Peter Hart in pursuance ofhis agenda has seen the light of day (‘In defence of Cork’s politicalculture’, HI 13.4, July/August 2005). But why is the Civil War death ofMichael Collins described as an assassination? Collins, in uniform,rifle in hand, had been firing on his attackers, as had his … Read more
The Irish art of controversy Lucy McDiarmid (Lilliput Press, E20) ISBN 1843510693 On 4 June 1957 the British ambassador in Dublin, Sir Alexander Clutterbuck, writing to Sir Charles Dixon at the Commonwealth Relations Office, commented: ‘Apart from partition itself, the two main “official” grievances in this country against us are the Lane pictures and Casement, … Read more