Sir, —I bought your magazine for the first time recently while waitingfor a train at Heuston Station. I really enjoyed it, but theoutstanding article was by Charlie McGuire on Seán McLoughlin. What afascinating account of this man, and, of course, the epilogue had mereally purring! But can we have more, please? What became of SeánMcLoughlin’s … Read more
Sir, —Hot on the heels of comparing Ulster unionists to the Nazis, it now seems that Mary McAleese wishes to reinstate the glorification of a rebellion that caused immeasurable suffering to the very people the insurgents were seeking to free from ‘oppression’. This seems particularly unfortunate at a time when the Republic of Ireland seemed … Read more
The man who lost Ireland RTÉ 1, Tuesday 18 April, 10.15pm Hidden History Directed by Darragh Byrne Produced by Steve Carson by Eamon O’Flaherty The public appetite for analyses of theEaster Rising seems insatiable. Later in the year TV Eye will reviewthe media response to the ninetieth anniversary of the Rising, but atthis point, and … Read more
Witnesses inside the Easter Rising Annie Ryan (Liberties Press, ?12.95) 0954533550In 1947, as the generation that had lived through the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence entered their fifties and sixties, the Fianna Fáil government set up the Bureau of Military History to record the memories of those who were involved in these events. … Read more
Nationalism and the Irish Party: provincial Ireland 1910–1916 Michael Wheatley (Oxford University Press, £50) ISBN 019927357 One of the difficulties in explaining the collapse of the Irish Parliamentary Party in 1918, after three decades in which it remained virtually unchallenged at the head of Irish nationalism, is that there are so many potential explanations. Was … Read more