Sir, - Mr Ben Walsh (July 9th) takes my name in vain, but as Mr de Valera memorably replied to Mr Frank McDermott once upon a time: "Who knows about implications?" It would be happier if the Boyne were commemorated by all in carnival and masquerade, though some hat surgery would probably be required to transform the parades into ones of costumed merrymakers.
It was not the casualties alone which made Aughrim unhappy, though it would have been preferable from an Irish point of view if the figures had been reversed. The Irish were riven by internal feuds: Tyrconnell was poisoned by his own. With allies like that, the Irish did not need the English, Danes, Brandenburgers, Huguenots and a sprinkling of Ulster Protestants as enemies. The big mistake of the Irish was in backing an inept English king instead of getting behind his son in law, the solid Dutchman, William of Orange.
"Bloody", by the way, does not always mean "stained with blood". It can be used as an intensive: "bloody good"; "bloody awful" or, in the present contextual tommyrot, "bloody minded".
It's the way they tell em.
The bloody Boyne has caused so much needless suffering and misery to so many over the centuries that it is time it was sent to the cleaners. Then we can have a more joyous Te Deum, in which all can ecumenically gain. That'll be the day: the real "la". - Yours,
Cedarmount Road,
Mount Merrion.