Sir, - W.J. Murphy (November 4th) is wrong when he says that Ireland would have evolved along the lines of Canada, New Zealand and Australia without the War of Independence. Those countries were already self-governing in 1919 and had, to use a phrase of Michael Collins, the freedom to achieve freedom.
No such freedom was available to Ireland in 1919, and certainly not on an all-Ireland basis, since the unionists had armed themselves to the teeth and announced that their loyalty to the United Kingdom was so great that they would fight any Act of Parliament that granted autonomy. Since the Curragh Mutiny showed that they had the support of the British army, it is hard to see how any peaceful evolution of freedom could have come about. - Yours, etc.,
David Smith, Harmonstown Road, Artane, Dublin 5.