Sir,—I enjoyed Conor Nelson’s article on Erskine Childers and the Howth gunrunning and Joe Connell’s ‘Countdown to 2016’ piece on the same topic (HI 22.3, May/June 2014). However, I feel the need to clarify a couple of points in the latter. Firstly, Joe is obviously conflating the Asgard arms landing of 1914 with the failed … Read more
I’m sure I’m not the only native of Dublin intrigued by Quincey Dougan’s article (HI 22.3, May/June 2014) on Dublin unionists arming and drilling in 1914 to take on the British Army in the event of Home Rule, and to shock and overawe whatever moral force a Home Rule parliament might have been able to … Read more
Sir,—Having spent three years researching a biography of Howe Peter Browne, second marquess of Sligo, the sensational and misleading title of Turtle Bunbury’s article—‘Lord Sligo’s plunder of ancient Greece’ (HI 22.3, May/June 2014)—not surprisingly caught my eye. On a reading of the article the title sadly reflects the many other inaccuracies within. Lord Sligo’s ‘plunder … Read more
Sir,—Fergus Whelan’s interesting report of the Hutcheson Institute seminar (HI 22.3, May/June 2014) raises a number of significant issues. In the first place there is a vexed question concerning the title. The Ulster Covenant is described as being ‘In Defence of Modernity’, but what is political ‘Modernity’? Technologically, the concept is easy to understand; the … Read more
Sir,—In most places, history is just history—but not in Ireland, it seems, where history is primarily politics. I find myself nonplussed by your editorial comment about a [British] royal presence in Dublin two years hence—in a journal that calls itself History Ireland? If history must be politics, let me call to mind that French President … Read more