Sir, – Stephen Collins highlights 12 events in his article on a “decade of commemoration” which he heralds at the beginning of 2012 (Home News, January 5th). Surely the “Curragh mutiny” of 1914 deserves to be listed here?
I quote from my great uncle’s description of this event: “An amazing situation arose. What is now and had hitherto been the most loyal and law abiding portion of the King’s Dominions indulged in wholesale gun running, and organised a Volunteer Army not to fight against rebel forces but to oppose any attempt by His Majesty’s Government to enforce the will of Parliament! Troops at the Curragh – the Irish Aldershot – were ordered to Northern Ireland and a number of distinguished officers resigned their commissions rather than take part in a military demonstration against the Ulster leaders.
“The situation was complicated by the fact that a great soldier with strong Ulster sympathies – Sir Henry Wilson – was Director of Military Operations at the War Office and was almost open in his sympathies with his Ulster compatriots.
“He seems to have conveyed the impression to the officers who were embarrassing the government . . . if their resignations were accepted by Mr Asquith’s government they would be reinstated when the Conservatives returned to power.” – The Crown and the Kingdom: England’s Royal Family, Col Robert J Blackham, 1935. These are the comments of an officer of the British army with a very distinguished career.
Surely the story of Irish history in the 20th century would have been quite different if the British government had dealt with this matter differently and with the same firmness that they showed to the nationalist movement? – Yours, etc,