Sir,—James O’Neill’s interesting article on the ongoing search for the remains of Red Hugh O’Donnell in Valladolid, Spain (HI 28.4, July/Aug. 2020), brings to mind another heroic Irish leader who is also buried on foreign soil—General Patrick Sarsfield, first earl of Lucan, defender of Limerick, who fought on the Jacobean side in the fateful Williamite … Read more
Sir,—I welcome Dr Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh’s timely analysis of the partial reading of the revolutionary period by earlier revisionist historians (HI 28.4, July/August 2020, Platform). The limited ambition of the ‘assembly line of automatons’ emerging from our history departments during the Decade of Centenaries has facilitated the evolution of a virulent mutation of revisionism. This … Read more
Sir,—I read with interest Alison Martin’s article on Michael Collins and the British press (HI 28.4, July/August 2020). It is, however, a pity that her opening sentence contains a historical inaccuracy, which is repeated in the penultimate paragraph, where the August 1922 death of Collins is termed an ‘assassination’. There were indeed assassinations during the … Read more
Sir,—Your May/June 2020 issue kindly included a review by Owen McGee of my book The enigma of Arthur Griffith: ‘Father of Us All’ (Merrion Press). On the night that the book was launched, an enthusiastic historical researcher came armed with press cuttings to demonstrate during drinks that the caption on one of the photographs in … Read more
BY TONY CANAVAN Centenary of an unusual kidnapping One hundred years ago the IRA captured Brig. Gen. Cuthbert Lucas while he and two other British army officers were fishing on the River Blackwater in County Cork. Letters between Lucas and his wife (addressed ‘c/o the IRA’), along with Lucas’s secret captivity diary, have now … Read more