Sir,—It appears that we are to be bombarded with anniversaries: 1913 and the Lockout; 1914 and the Great War; 1916 and the Rising, Verdun and the Somme. But we may have missed the first significant anniversary. Surely the First Balkan War in the autumn of 1912 was the first violent convulsion of a disastrous century. … Read more
Sir,—As the ‘big one’ approaches in 2016, it is worth looking back on how the description ‘Sinn Féin’s revolution’, used in ‘Class dismissed’ by Brian Hanley and in ‘Helena Molony: a revolutionary life’ by Fearghal McGarry (HI 21.4, July/August 2013), was greeted by the party in the aftermath of the Easter Rising. As contemporary press … Read more
Sir,—I welcome the call, from the historians at the 16 May History Ireland ‘Hedge School’, for critical analysis of the ‘decade of centenaries’ events from 1912–22. I have been reflecting on this for some time, having been reminded of some unanswered questions when editing the 1998 UCD Press re-publication of my father Joe Johnston’s 1913 … Read more
Sir,—Ernest Kavanagh’s cartoon ‘Dublin Labour War’, which appeared on p. 34 of your recent special issue on the 1913 Lockout (HI 21.4, July/August 2013), did not actually appear in the Irish Worker newspaper, as stated in the caption. To the best of my knowledge it had never been published prior to its welcome appearance in … Read more
Sir,—Reading Las Fallon’s reference (HI 21.4, July/August 2013, letters) to ‘Auxiliary police’ killed in the Kilmichael ambush, the ‘man on the Clapham omnibus’ might well think he was referring to Kosher Koppers or Pukkha Peelers. Even the more sceptical ‘man or woman on the Stockwell tube’, if acquainted with the writings of Kevin Myers or … Read more