Sir, - Alas, poor Pearse! Firstly, Kevin Myers attacks him for the violence and destruction in Dublin in 1916 (An Irishman's Diary, July 22nd); and, secondly, he attacks him for the violence and destruction that the Germans caused in Belgium in 1914 (Diary, August 19th). In the midst of changing the goalposts, it is possible to discern one constant in the writings of Mr Myers: a consistent alignment of his thinking with that of British officialdom of that period. His first contribution, as I indicated in my article of August 2nd, accorded fully with the aims of the British censor; his second contribution coincided with the objectives of British propaganda during the first World War.
The files of the British Department for Publicity and Propaganda during the first World War report that W.H. Brayden, a journalist, was employed by the Chief Secretary at a fee of £50 per month to undertake press propaganda "in opposition to Sinn Fein and pro-German teachings". Republican nationalism and pro-German sentiments were the designated targets of Brayden in 1918. they remain the targets of Kevin Myers at the present time.
From his base at the Irish Recruiting Council at 25 Kildare Street, Brayden supervised the publication of such journals at The Irish Soldier, which, while claiming to be objective, were in fact vehicles of British propaganda. British gallantry was extolled; German atrocities were highlighted. The August 19th Diary by Kevin Myers is in the best tradition of this propaganda department: the horrific killing of non-combatants by the German Army in the early years of the war is publicised, and rightly condemned; but there is no mention of the execution by the British army of about 300 of their own troops after trial by court martial. Recent studies relating to the Great War, which Mr Myers is usually keen to promote, reveal that several of those executed were suffering from shell shock, and that racial motives may have played a part in some of the executions. Indeed, the work of Gerard Oram suggests that the unusually high number of Irish soldiers executed may have been due to the British belief that they "needed firm, perhaps even harsh handling".
For any assessment of Pearse, and it is proper to return to him, the origin of the war was of critical importance. His view, and those of others who rebelled, was cogently expressed by Roger Casement in his book The Crime Against Europe. Having analysed the reasons underlying the foundation of the Triple Entente, Casement concluded that "England fights not to defend the neutrality of Belgium, not to destroy German militarism, but to retain, if need be by involving the whole world in war, her supreme and undisputed ownership of the seas. This is the crime against Europe, the crime against the world."
Neither the British Department of Propaganda nor Kevin Myers question the righteousness of the British war aims, but for Pearse and for Casement questions existed: why should Irishmen enlist to fight for small nations rightly struggling to be free, when that freedom was not granted to Ireland? Why should Irishmen enlist to fight in an army which, at the Curragh mutiny, had disobeyed the orders of the Crown to uphold the Irish Constitution? Such questions were banned by Lord Decies, the chief censor, in his day.
In the present debate Kevin Myers, and many of your correspondents, have also failed to assess Pearse in the light of unionist opposition to Home Rule. Reflecting on the nature of this opposition, the moderation of the Bill, and the extent of its democratic mandate, Asquith declared in 1912 that the Ulster campaign of Carson and his Tory allies in England furnished "a complete grammar of anarchy".
It was in this context that Pearse adopted a revolutionary position. In a sense he abandoned a democratic system which had itself abandoned its democratic credentials and, in so doing, had laid bare the real source of its authority in Ireland: it was based not on the freely declared will of the Irish people, but was subject to the authority of an imperial parliament. The reality of this imperial dimension was made even more apparent by British policy in the first World War.
Possibly one should be grateful to Kevin Myers for focusing on this imperial dimension, but, at the end of the day, his Diary of August 19th, like that of July 22nd, tells us more about himself than about Patrick Pearse. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Brian P. Murphy Glenstal Abbey, Limerick.
Kevin Myers writes: Dr Murphy's farrago doesn't merit a detailed reply, but I cannot refrain from pointing out that I was the first journalist to disclose numbers and details of Irish soldiers executed by British army firing squad in the Great War.