Sir, - The admirable Dublin Civic Museum puts on excellent exhibitions from time to time. I am now proposing that it put on an exhibition devoted exclusively to the men who returned from the Great War to fight the Black-and-Tans. Their expertise was an important factor in winning the War of Independence. Tom Barry and Emmet Dalton were two outstanding examples. There were many others. The Connaught Rangers would of course be part of that exhibition. General Barry was the architect of the classic Crossbarry engagement which features as such in West Point textbooks.
The President's dignified deportment at Messines Ridge spoke volumes. If nothing else the commemoration may silence vociferous, white-feather-sticking "warriors" from north of the border. The "in your face" chest-swelling of our own little crusaders south of the border, castigating backward nationalists for their sins, struck an irritating note.
Our anti-Britishness was not for nothing. The Black-and-Tans were blackguards; the Auxiliaries torched Cork; the Tommies condescendingly, with master-race attitudes, roughed up the people.
It's time to put it all behind us, but that does not mean letting nose-rubbing twits smite us from an altitude. Without 1916 the Queen would be opening the Dail: obsequious forelocks would still be tugged. God preserve us. God save Ireland.
Our own first-class military archives could be a help to the Dublin Civic Museum in this project. - Yours, etc. J. P. Duggan,
Cedarmount Road, Mount Merrion, Dublin 4.