Sir, – When Alfred Cope, a former British assistant undersecretary in Dublin Castle, was approached in the 1940s to give a statement to the Bureau of Military History he refused, saying “Ireland has too many histories: she deserves a rest”. David Adams (Opinion April 25th) would seem to agree.
He is right, of course, in his point that mythologised history has no place as a subject in our schools, but in making it he peddles a few myths himself.
As secretary of the Dublin 1798 Commemoration Committee, I was a regular visitor to commemorative events in Wexford (even “tramping up” Vinegar Hill on occasion) and the burning to death of 100-200 loyalists (Catholic and Protestant) by insurgents in a barn in Scullabogue was not ignored. In fact it has featured in school books in the South, along with Cruickshank’s lurid depiction, since the early 1970s.
His description of (unnamed) historians as "propagandists, purveyors of mythology, highly selective storytellers", etc, is at odds with the rude health and diversity of historical scholarship over the past generation and not just at academic level but in popular radio programmes such as RTÉ's History Show , Newstalk's Talking History and History Ireland magazine, this year celebrating its 20th birthday. To mark the occasion we are hosting a special Hedge School (and David Adams is welcome to join us): Has Ireland too many histories: writing history in the roller coaster generation? , with Prof Joe Lee, Prof Diarmaid Ferriter, Dr Éamon Phoenix and Mary Cullen at 7pm on May 16th in the Royal College of Physicians, Kildare Street. – Yours, etc,
Between 1939 and 1969 the Irish working in Britain sent home remittances totalling £3.5 billion to help bolster a stuttering young nation. – Yours, etc,
TOMMY GRAHAM,
Editor, History Ireland ,
Palmerston Place, Dublin 7.