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 read with interest the article on the American Civil War by Kevin Haddick Flynn (HI 20.5, Sept./Oct. 2012). I should like, however, to correct some factual errors in the article, the first being that William Mitchel was John Mitchel’s eldest son. He was in fact his youngest and a private in the 1st Virginia … Read more
Fenians, freedmen, and Southern whites: race and nationality in the era of Reconstruction Mitchell Snay (Louisiana State University Press, $40) ISBN 9780807132739What do Southern Klansmen, their politically aroused former slaves and American-based Irish nationalists have in common? Not a lot, it turns out. Mitchell Snay aspires in this ambitious comparative study to tease out a … 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