Sir,—Despite the lengthy criticism by Michael Quigley of Ontario of a Big Book review which I wrote about two excellent books in HI 28.4, July/August 2020, on the partition of Ireland 100 years ago, books which he does not say he has read, I am not convinced that there is any issue of substance between … Read more
Sir,—While I haven’t the slightest interest in defending the alt-right, the arguments that Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc levels against them create more general problems for our understanding of history (HI 28.1, Jan./Feb. 2020, Platform). For example, he accuses the alt-right of not understanding the difference between Irish nationalism and republicanism. He says that republicanism espouses … Read more
Sir,—Jeffrey Dudgeon describes as ‘fallacious’ (HI 28.6, Nov./Dec. 2020, letters) my and Fr John Hassan’s use of the word ‘pogrom’ to describe the events of 1920–22 in Belfast (‘Facts and fallacies of the Belfast pogrom’, HI 28.5, Sept./Oct. 2020) and he calls for context and definition. The context consists of three overlapping developments that, by … Read more