Sir, - How good it is to hear from Fr Liam Swords (The Irish Times, June 8th) that the Church of Ireland has nothing to apologise for in regard to the Great Famine.
This is the view that I consistently put forward during the recent commemorations and it is timely to have this vindication of the research of the late Prof Desmond Bowen on which my own writing was largely based.
The Church of Ireland published a collection of essays to mark the 150th anniversary of the Famine and this is still available from Church House, Dublin 6. In it can be read my own essay on the role of the clergy during the famine and also the contrasting view set forth by Archbishop Eames in the text of his sermon preached in Tuam Cathedral at the National Service. - Yours, etc., Very Rev Dr R. B. MacCarthy,
Provost of Tuam, Taylor's Hill, Galway.