Sir, - Michael O'Brien (November 23rd) believed me "deeply confused" in what I wrote about Eoin O'Duffy and the men he led in the Spanish Civil War (An Irishman's Diary, November 19th). I think it is Mr O'Brien who is confused and, worse, unforgiving.
He considered that the photograph accompanying my article, in which O'Duffy was shown taking a Nazi-style salute at a Blueshirt rally, proved these men were fascists. Such a conclusion is confusing the trappings of fascism with the substance.
Whether or not the Blueshirts were fascist cannot be adequately considered in the space of a short letter, but both Maurice Manning's and Mike Cronin's books on the movement conclude that they were not. I would rather accept their opinion, based on in-depth study, than Mr O'Brien's.
He referred to "the many heroic volunteers in the International Brigades" and to "my father and the other brave people in the International Brigades". I agree indeed that they were heroic and brave and, as I stated in my article, had I been alive at the time and had their courage, I would have been on their side in the conflict. But the Irishmen who went to fight on the opposite side were no less brave or idealistic and Mr O'Brien needs to become forgiving enough to recognise that.
He does not have to take just my word that some of "O'Duffy's confused volunteers" joined the British army to fight Nazi Germany in the second World War. The evidence is in Robert Stradling's excellent book on Irish involvement in the Spanish Civil War, which Mr O'Brien would do well to read.
His final point, that erecting a monument to the Irish who fought on Franco's side would be akin to erecting one to the Nazis, is patently absurd.
Why not a monument to all Irishmen who went to Spain to fight for their differing ideals? - Yours, etc.,
Brian Maye, Mountain View Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.