Sir, - Aine Ni Chonaill (August 10th) accuses me of intellectual dishonesty and of twisting her words. She says I am inaccurate in my representation of her views. Yet she does not point out a single instance in which I misread or misrepresented her views.
She then says: "As regards Lebensraum, whatever the intellectual origins of the word, as advocated and practised by the Germans it meant invading the territory of others." She has missed the point. By focusing on one of the effects of Lebensraum (invasion) she ignores the cause (the racism inherent in the Lebensraum ideology) and its other effects (racist policies, racist attacks and, ultimately, genocide).
Had she got the point, it is possible that she would have avoided using the Lebensraum ideology again. Yet on the same day as her reply to my letter was published, she suggested on Morning Ireland that we need to protect the communal homeland of the Irish. Then again, maybe she did get the point. Maybe I am not the one who is guilty of intellectual dishonesty. - Yours, etc., Roland Tormey,
Avondale Court,
Corbally,
Limerick.