Madam, - Karl Marx's collaborator Frederich Engels was cited in support of union with Britain and in support of John Bruton's speech to the Reform Movement in which he supported John Redmond (John Rochfort, October 7th). But Marx and Engels favoured Irish independence.
Engels did not view the English as "benefactors". He wrote in the paragraph before the passage cited by John Rochfort: "The English immigration. . .has contented itself with the most brutal plundering of the Irish people". After writing thus in 1845 Engels concluded that separation was essential for political progress on both islands. He agreed with Marx's statement on Britain's colonial relationship with Ireland: "One nation that enslaves another can never itself be free." Engels toured Ireland, studied Irish history and wrote extensively on the subject. The writings of Marx and Engels on the Irish question comprise a substantial volume called Marx and Engels on Ireland.
It is not valid to conclude that a revolutionary communist would have supported the views of the conservative John Redmond or the equally conservative John Bruton. More likely he would have found them to be, from Mr Rochfort's cited passage, "the cause of Irish misery at home".
I would like to comment also on a hoary old chestnut that has re-emerged. Frank Fitzpatrick observed (October 1st) that Sinn Féin won 47 per cent of the votes cast in 1918. This point ignores the 25 uncontested seats of the 75 that Sinn Féin won overall.
A conservative estimate of Sinn Féin support, extrapolating from contested seats, suggests Sinn Féin support was 67 per cent (conservative in the sense that the level of support in the uncontested seats would have resembled those won with 80 per cent or more of votes cast). Therefore the level of support must be considered to be higher than this conservatively estimated overwhelming mandate - which Britain duly ignored and fought an unjustified war over.
The thousands of lives lost are Britain's responsibility, but small beer to a country prepared to waste the variously estimated 35,000 to 50,000 Irishmen lost in its service in the first World War - a catastrophe that itself fed support for Sinn Féin in 1918. The fact that, according to Dr Gerard Oram, "More Irish troops were being executed than any other in the British Army" may also have had an effect on Irish attitudes. - Yours, etc.,
NIALL MEEHAN, Offaly Road, Cabra, Dublin 7.