Sir, - In his Irishman's Diary of October 14th, Kevin Myers declares: "Nothing was achieved by the talks in 1921 that could not have been achieved by talks in 1919. But of course the IRA didn't want talks in 1919."
As regards the first sentence, it isn't possible to say what could or could not have been achieved by talks in 1919, though we may agree that, in the circumstances, it would not have been an Irish 32-county republic. However, the subsequent sentence evades an important truth. It was not only the IRA who "didn't want talks in 1919". The British were even less prepared to talk; after all, the Dail did send a delegation to the Paris peace talks, but the British did not try to contact it.
All the evidence is that the British government was not interested in any peace in Ireland except on the terms it offered in its ridiculous Better Government of Ireland Act and that it did not change until around May 1921.
In these circumstances, it might be argued that war was inevitable if even Saorstat Eireann were to be obtained and that, to that extent, it can be argued that the IRA campaign of 1919-21 was indeed a "just war". - Yours, etc.,
D.R. O'Connor Lysaght, Clanawley Road, Killester, Dublin 5.