Sir,—Fiona Fitzsimons’s ‘Estate records as a source for family history’ (HI 23.6, Nov./Dec. 2015, p. 37) raises the question of where such records are to be appropriately housed. When I wrote my biography of Charles Acton of Kilmacurragh, Co. Wicklow (Charles: the life and worlds of Charles Acton, 1914–1999), I had access to the extant … Read more
Sir,—Gabriel Doherty writes how Michael Davitt ‘thought little’ of O’Donovan Rossa (HI 23.6, Nov./Dec. 2015, Platform). A man of Davitt’s moral stature couldn’t possibly condone Rossa’s dynamite campaign. However, in the course of his monumental speech before the Parnell Commission of 1889—on the 113th day of the hearing—Davitt used Rossa’s history as an example of … Read more
Sir,—Archibald Hamilton Rowan could very well have read the select writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, including his diary, as they were first published as his Life in Washington in the early summer of 1826, and not 1831 as is stated by Fergus Whelan (HI 24.1, Jan./Feb. 2016, ‘The seditious library of Archibald Hamilton Rowan’). Furthermore, … Read more
Sir,—When examining problems facing the National Library and Museum (HI 23.3, May/June 2015, Platform) it never occurred to me, or to those with whom I spoke, that culchies were to blame. All is revealed, however, in Felix M. Larkin’s Platform piece (HI 24.1, Jan./Feb. 2016). The Museum and Library, as ‘institutions of the Pale’, are, … Read more
Sir,—Following Dennis Kennedy’s advice in his response to my letter (HI 24.1, Jan./Feb. 2016), I have re-read his ‘Casting a cold eye on 1916’ article in ‘a calmer state of mind’ and arrived at the conclusion that perhaps he might at least allow that the 1916 Rising was one small step for the Irish, one … Read more