In 2008 Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann applied for planning permission to Cashel town council to enhance their local Brú Boru heritage centre at the foot of the Rock of Cashel. The Development Applications Unit of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government wrote to Cashel town council on 24 June 2008, seeking further information … Read more
Sir,—In the last issue (HI 20.5, Sept./Oct. 2012) Professor David Fitzpatrick writes, ‘Dr Regan urges me … to unveil the identity and religious affiliation of those responsible for the Macroom or “Bandon Valley” massacre’. David Fitzpatrick misrepresents me. In the May–June issue Professor Fitzpatrick wrote: ‘The fact that names [of those responsible for the massacre] … Read more
It is arguable that the eventual decision to send in the troops while leaving the Stormont regime intact was the greatest mistake of British policy during the Troubles. It is clear that this decision was not taken casually or lightly, yet the fact remains that the government’s strategy allowed it to garner the worst of … Read more
Sir,—I refer to Seán Kelleher’s letter (HI, Sept./Oct. 2012) about my chapter on Kilmichael in David Fitzpatrick’s (ed.) Terror in Ireland. Mr Kelleher argues that Jack Hennessy’s Bureau of Military History (BMH) statement contains an account of a false surrender by the Auxiliaries, while simultaneously asserting that such surrender caused the ‘fatal wounding of three … Read more
‘I knew Lynch very well because he had been minister for finance when I had been chancellor. For years before I knew him and thought him to be a very sensible man, and when he said he was going to put hospital beds on the borders, I thought “How absurd! What’s gone wrong with you?” … Read more