Sir, - Forgive me for wondering, after reading the letter from Padraig O Cuanachain's letter, how you operate your right to reject letters!
Some 18,000 Catholic Irishmen died in the first World War. The 50,000 he refers to includes the Protestants on the island who were British. Furthermore, the crude, anglophobic Pearse, who was responsible for the deaths of 230 innocent Dublin citizens, did not act to stop recruitment to the British Forces. In fact, as Kevin Myers and Derek Simpson (August 17th) have pointed out, Pearse's psychopathic ego glorified the slaughter in the war.
Lastly, no Irishmen were forced to join the British forces to end the barbarities of the Germans (graphically described by Mr Myers); they went of their own free will. In contrast, the 230 innocent Dubliners did not volunteer in Easter week 1916 to die for anything and Mr O'Cuanachain and Dr Mansergh should bear that in mind when they elevate Pearse's unmandated violence at the expense of the peaceful and democratic politics of John Redmond.
Patrick Goggin is to be congratulated for pointing out the dangers of the implications of Dr Mansergh's inflammatory approach for the peoples of this island, many of whom are deeply offended by the exclusivist celebration at Arbour Hill by an Taoiseach, as leader of Fianna Fail. - Yours, etc.,
John Rochfort, Granstown Close, Earls Court, Waterford.