Madam, - The debate on 1916 and Home Rule started by John Bruton, courtesy of the Reform Movement, is long overdue in a State that has been more or less unquestioning about 1916 and the 6,000 or so Irish people who died then and up to 1923.
Dermot Meleady's contribution (September 30th) was enlightening and balanced. But may I point out that most Irishmen fought voluntarily in the British army against the Boers, no matter what John Redmond may have said? And those who fought for the Boers, like Major John McBride, supported the nation that eventually created apartheid.
Engels was interesting on the subject of Irish independence and perhaps his thinking may be partly what John Bruton had in mind when defending Redmondism. Engels believed that independence would not ease Ireland's difficulties, but instead would "lay bare the fact that the cause of Irish misery, which now seems to come from abroad, is really to be found at home."
After independence, the economy was in Irish hands yet the country was economically stagnant for decades and tens of thousands emigrated, sadly most of them poorly educated, to find work and a new life in England and the US and Commonwealth countries. Had we stayed in the United Kingdom, Engels, and I suggest Redmond, believed we would have had a benefactor in economic terms.
It took us 50 years to find a new economic benefactor, the European Union. It is at least worth asking whether, had Redmond won out with Home Rule, Engels's point would have been verified. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN ROCHFORT,
Ear's Court,
Waterford.