A chara, - It is truly amazing how historical truth and objectivity fly out the window when some anti-nationalists discuss Patrick Pearse's role in the struggle for Irish independence.
Robin Bury's letter of April 27th is a prime example of such distortion and misrepresentation. Pearse's rhetoric was no stronger than that of Churchill ("blood, sweat and tears"), Roosevelt and other leaders when exhorting their people to be steadfast in times of crisis. Civilian casualties in the 1916 Rising were mainly the result of British military over-reaction under the command of "Bloody" Maxwell, the general sent to Ireland to quell the Rising with an iron fist.
Pearse was scrupulous in his concern for the safety of civilians and it was this concern that caused him to bring the Rising to a premature end.
Although originally supportive of the Home Rule movement, like millions of others he eventually realised that it and the discredited Irish Parliamentary Party were being hoodwinked by Churchill, Lloyd George and those double-dealing British politicians in playing "the Orange card". It was this realisation that, inter alia, led to the resort to arms in 1916 to achieve Irish freedom.
Pearse's life and his writings on education, social balance and tolerance and national reconstruction mark him out not only as a "realistic man of his time", as Garret FitzGerald describes him, but also as one of the most honourable, idealistic and far-thinking patriots ever to grace the chapters of Irish history. - Is mise,
LIAM MAC UISTIN, Baile Átha Buí, Co na Mí,