Sir,—Toby Joyce neatly describes (HI 11.2, Summer 2003) the battles of the famous draft riots of 1863, but he fails, I think, to deal candidly with the dynamics of the Irish scene in New York. The Irish working-class realised that many Americans regarded it as ‘papist scum’, one step below the ‘niggers’. Nevertheless the Democratic … Read more
Sir,—Your otherwise excellent article on Bloody Sunday 1920 was spoiledfor this reader, and I would imagine many others, by the words ‘Was thegovernment claim that their forces were fired on first true?’ At thattime the legitimate government of Ireland was Dáil Éireann, to whichthe vast majority of the Irish people gave their allegiance. The forcesof … Read more
CK: What is the nature of this collection? VL: The Bureau of Military History was established by the government in 1947 with the remit of gathering material relating to the period 1913 to 1921. So they set about establishing who was alive and interviewing those people. CK: What kind of people were they looking for? … Read more
Welcome back As Mark Twain might have said, ‘. . . rumours of our death have been grossly exaggerated’. After a brief interruption of transmission, normal service has been resumed. History Ireland is back under new management. We appreciate the loyalty and patience of our readers, and our subscribers in particular should rest assured that … Read more
Sir—David Fitzpatrick’s article in the Summer 2002 issue (HI 10.2), ‘De Valera’s Performance as a Convict 1916–17’, is valuable as an examination of some important documents relating to the development of twentieth-century Irish history, but is nevertheless open to criticism on several points. The title, which accepts the English designation of the Irish prisoners as … Read more