Sir,—Brendan Ó Cathaoir wondered in his letter (HI 21.6, Nov./Dec. 2013, ‘Britain’s offer on unity: missed opportunity?’) whether a more secure statesman than de Valera would at least have explored the British offer in 1940 of their new commitment to the principle of Irish unity—in return for Ireland agreeing to join the British war effort … Read more
A Chara,—Dermot McMonagle in his review of Ronan Fanning’s Fatal Path: British Government and Irish Revolution 1910–1922 (HI 21.6, Nov./Dec. 2013) correctly to my mind questions Fanning’s statement that Arthur Griffith showed weakness at the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. This is symptomatic of a wider tendency among some historians and commentators to criticise Griffith and praise … Read more
Sir,—Niall Meehan (HI 21.6, Nov./Dec. 2103, letters) takes me to task for unfairly contributing to the ‘denigration’ of republican revolutionaries, through the performance of a spoof ballad expressing sectarian attitudes as an introduction to my Parnell Lecture at Magdalene College, Cambridge, on ‘The Spectre of Ethnic Cleansing in Revolutionary Ireland’. As I wrote in response … Read more