Madam, - According to Robin Bury (April 27th), the Irish Parliamentary Party "despised violence".
Perhaps, then, he can explain why John Redmond, the leader of the IPP, exhorted Irishmen to fight on behalf of the English ruling classes in their imperialist conflict with Germany, at Woodenbridge, Co Wicklow, on September 20th 1914.
The sad truth is that he cannot, blinded as he is by a neo-colonial historical perspective, as evidenced by his admiration for Ruth Dudley Edwards, Stephen Lowe and Kevin Myers.
Furthermore, his attempt to portray Padraig Pearse as an English-hating psychopath is not only disgraceful, it is also ahistorical. Pearse did indeed despise the English ruling élite and their murderous imperialism, but so did many of the organised working classes in England, Scotland and Wales. - Yours, etc.,
SEAN McDONOUGH, Lennonstown Manor, Dundalk, Co Louth.