Sir,—When I was compiling the ‘Statements and Soundbites’ section of A factbook of Irish history (Kindle/Amazon), I tried to establish the provenance of every quotation but in two instances I hit the proverbial brick wall. Every student of Jonathan Swift will be familiar with his famous diatribe against the appointment of Englishmen to Irish sees: … Read more
Sir,—Allow me to add to Michael Kennedy’s informative article (HI 31.5, Sept./Oct. 2023, pp 44–6) on the above topic by highlighting Éamon de Valera’s reaction to the Soviet Union’s application to join the League in 1934 and his government’s attitude to subsequent Soviet involvement. The Soviets’ application was determined by Adolf Hitler’s accession to power … Read more
Sir,—I am not in the habit of writing letters to learned journals, being only too aware of my own limitations in the realms of higher learning. I have, however, had the good fortune to have had an elementary education at the hands of the Irish Christian Brothers, which included a grounding in the teaching of … Read more
Sir,—In Brian Hanley’s interesting article ‘Dirty war and its practitioners’ (HI 31.5, Sept./Oct. 2023, Platform) he expresses surprise that under the shared interest of post-Civil War Old IRA gatherings some anti-Treatyites could mix with their erstwhile National Army opponents, ‘whom they knew to have tortured and killed their comrades’. In this regard Brian referenced the … Read more