Sir,—I am one of many who don’t know much about Michael Collins, but Ihave done an oral history of someone who served under him from 1919until the split. This man clearly read Tim Pat Coogan’s biographyas stating that Collins was a ‘womaniser’ (contrary to Ian McKeane,HI Autumn 1995), but asserted that he had not been … Read more
Sir,—I was one of the Irish soldiers who took part in the ceremonial transfer of Cork Harbour defences from British to Irish armed forces on 11 July1938. When Chamberlain asked Eamonn de Valera when he would like that transfer to take place, Dev replied, ‘11 July, the seventeenth anniversary of the Truce, 1921’. I was … Read more
Sir,—Reading Patrick Holland’s account of the Unionist meeting in the picture gallery in Kilkenny Castle on 12 October 1912 and Brian Cleary’s account of the Byrne-Perry Summer School, one could not but feel that little has changed over the intervening eighty-three years. Mr. Holland candidly acknowledges the partisan approach of the press coverage of the … Read more
Sir,—Re. Sean Connolly’s passing jab in your Autumn 1995 issue, dismissing as ‘hopelessly anachronistic’ my description of Charles Lucas as a nationalist. It is curious how apparently sophisticated ‘revisionist’ historical interpretations can be simply uncritical regurgitations of contemporary or near-contemporary prejudices. The portrayal of Lucas as a mere corporation politician and anti-Catholic bigot is a … Read more