Madam, - In a review of my book Tom Barry - IRA Freedom Fighter (Books, January 17th), Richard English quotes Barry's description of the poverty in "some" houses that they visited while engaged in the fight for Irish Independence. English noted that "the militant republicans" were not "particularly from the poor".
Barry did not say that. Neither did his comrade Tim O'Donoghue who spoke of the unselfishness of "the mixed civilian population" who backed Barry's flying column, which was Barry's point. Barry told Brian Farrell in an RTÉ TV programme that "people who weren't alive then will never understand the spirit of the people", who, he said, had been a subject race under British domination for 700 years.
The main reason Barry chose Kilmichael for that decisive ambush was because the Macroom-based Auxiliaries were harassing the mid-Cork and West Cork civilians. They used many types of intimidation including taking potshots at civilians who worked in fields. Such incidents show that "it was the British who set the pace", as Barry described.
To say that the record of this period is not one of "brave combat" does not do justice to the men and women who were often cold, wet and hungry. Yet they continued to fight, despite the military odds, to bring about the present twenty-six county state.
The fight, at that period was for an independent republic for Ireland; but such was not to be. Barry spent a lifetime fighting for this country and deserves to be recognised as one of the most important figures in Irish history. - Yours, etc.,
MEDA RYAN, Cusack Road, Ennis, Co Clare.