Sir, If John Cully (August 5th) is correct,the German president made a fool of himself yesterday by admitting that his country’s invasion of neutral Belgium was wrong and by admitting the terrible atrocities committed against the Belgian people by the German army in August 1914. Whatever faults the Germans may have, they are not noted for making fools of themselves.
Any student of Leaving Cert history would be aware of the record of German aggression against France. Bismarck in 1870 provoked France into declaring war with the aim of using this war to unite the states of the newly formed German Empire in a common cause. Germany, not France as stated by Mr Cully,was the strongest military power in Europe in 1914.
German generals knew that a war was likely in the future, so in 1902 the Schlieffen Plan was drawn up, with the invasion of France through neutral Belgium as its main strategy. Many historians have accepted the "blank cheque" theory, whereby Germany promised full military aid to Austria in the event of a European war. This emboldened Vienna to send a harsh ultimatum to Serbia following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Mr Cully is wrong in stating that the war was neither wanted nor provoked by Germany. He would seem to be in urgent need of a non-partisan book on this period. Might I suggest one by Niall Ferguson,The Pity of War. Yours,etc,
JOAN CANTY,
Ivy Grove,
Ballina,
Co Tipperary
Sir, – Listening to and reading about wars in the media, from the first World War to the current Israeli/Gaza one, one must observe a common strand in all cases. All of these terrible wars and their attendant atrocities were/are waged by men. It makes one cringe to look at any of the footage of these events and see all the power-seeking males (and not a woman in sight) who seem to defy all forms of common sense and reason when it comes to making caring, sensitive and logical decisions for the good of humankind.
They have created a dangerous, materialistic world where power and economics takes precedence over normal decent human life. Is it not now time to boot them all out and let the women take over? Do you think for a minute that, for example, the constant firing of rockets into Israel resulting in the terrible retaliatory bombing of Gaza would happen if women were in charge? I don’t think so. So men please back off and let the women take charge. No matter how badly they perform they could not make a bigger mess of the world than you have done. – Yours, etc,
MARY O’DOWD,
Mt Charles,
Kilkee,
Co Clare
Sir, I do not question the good faith of many in the Government and in the media in their efforts to promote the decade of commemoration on which we have embarked. I hope it’s not cynicism on my part then which causes the attendant extensive media coverage and many State functions to provoke in me a sour taste of lip service, a whiff of opportunism.
It is, I hope, prompted rather by the contrast between, on the one hand, this apparent concern to recover and debate our past and, on the other, the downgrading of the status of history by its effective axing from the curriculum by former minister Ruairí Quinn, the degradation of the depositories on which so much of the writing of history depends by the chronic underfunding of our museums and archives and the failure of the media to expose to significant investigation these decisions and their probable consequences.
With the absence of sustained critical comment on these issues the media may be seen to collude with the Government, unwittingly or otherwise, in regarding our history as of interest mainly for its potential as another commodity to be packaged and peddled, a desirable part of the cultural veneer, in this great little country to do business in.
Our selective amnesia regarding our participation in the first World War is now rightly deplored. Will it make us a more balanced people when our amnesia becomes total – our ignorance and indifference to be occasionally challenged by state ceremonial and newspaper supplement? Yours, etc,
EAMON SHEPPARD,
Foxes Grove,
Shankill,
Co Dublin
Sir, – I note with interest Archbishop Martin’s statement (August 4th) concerning the involvement of Irish men and women in the first World War and their “idealism” and “valour”. I may not live to see it but I hope the archbishop of the time might make a not dissimilar statement on September 1st, 2039 in relation to the men and women of Ireland who volunteered to fight Nazism for similar – if not greater – ideals. Yours etc,
SAMUEL WALSH,
Member of Aosdána,
Cloonlara,
Co Clare