Sir,—Peter Connolly (Letters, HI 20.6, Nov./Dec. 2012) contrasts the wiping out by Tom Barry’s column of eighteen Auxiliaries at Kilmichael in November 1920 with the sparing of men from the same force by Seán MacEoin’s men at Ballinalee in February 1921. Neither Barry nor any of his men suffered injury or imprisonment as a result … Read more
Sir,—I loved the front cover picture (HI 20.6, Nov./Dec. 2012) of Edward Carson and James Craig at Galgorm Castle in July 1913. Over the following few days I found myself coming back to sneak a peak at it again, and grinning inanely. And yet I couldn’t quite explain my fascination. And then came my ‘eureka’ … Read more
Sir,—I thoroughly enjoyed Philip Orr’s article on Ballymena during the Home Rule crisis (HI 20.6, Nov./Dec. 2012). I have lived in the town for 40 years and taught history here for 30. A pupil once lent me a postcard (reproduced in my Nationalist and Unionist: Ireland before the Treaty [Blackie & Son, 1989]) sent in … Read more
Sir,—In your editorial (HI 20.6, Nov./Dec. 2012) on the Cameron–Salmond agreement at Edinburgh to clarify in advance the legal aspects of a referendum on Scottish independence, you state that Ireland at the time of the 1912–14 Home Rule crisis was ‘not so lucky’, in that a ‘sizeable section of the British establishment’ refused to recognise … Read more
Irish Republicanism in Scotland, 1858–1916: Fenians in exile Máirtín S. Ó Catháin (Irish Academic Press, €24.95/£19.95 pb) ISBN 97807165 28586 During the heady days of 1867 and 1868, the Dublin rising, the Manchester Martyrs, the Clerkenwell prison bomb, the abortive raid on Chester Castle and many smaller episodes ensured that Fenianism generated endless column inches … Read more