Eucharistic Congress & W. T. Cosgrove

Sir, —Rory O’Dwyer gives an interesting account of the EucharisticCongress of 1932 (HI 15.6, Nov./Dec. 2007). I am rather disappointed,though in no way surprised, given the nexus of interconnected interestsbetween the almost permanent government of Fianna Fáil and all strandsof Irish society, that he does not mention W. T. Cosgrave or theprevious Cumann na nGaedheal … Read more

A comment on cobber Chapple

Sir, —Like Ian Chapple (‘Gaelic gripes’, Letters, HI 15.6, Nov./Dec.2007), ‘usually I read your magazine from cover to cover withenthusiasm and interest’. I fell on your excellent issue on Imeacht nanIarlaí/Flight of the Earls with extra interest. Although I was broughtup as ‘a monoglot Anglophone’, as Ian Chapple describes himself, unlikehim I did not find … Read more

John Charles McQuaid and tampons

Sir, —Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh, in her account of the trials of sportswomen in mid-twentieth-century Ireland (‘Internal tamponage, hockey parturition and mixed athletics’, HI 15.6, Nov./Dec. 2007), ridicules the opinions of the late John Charles McQuaid, Catholic archbishop of Dublin, and of Dr Stafford Johnson on the subject of menstrual tampons. Dr McQuaid in particular seems … Read more