Sir, - Eileen Battersby's fine article on the 200th anniversary of the death of Edmund Burke ("The Burke Enigma", July 9th) has an omission in her list of Irish historians, political scientists and literary people who have examined Burke's political philosophy and views of his native country. I refer to Dr Sean Cronin, who is known to readers of The Irish Times as a journalist but whose book Irish Nationalism (Irish Academy Press, Dublin 1980) remains a reading requirement in Irish Studies classes at many US Universities.
Some of Burke's comments resonate, perhaps all too well, in the Orange marching season in Northern Ireland: "[Tone] had no patience with any kind of religious fanaticism, but felt the Catholics were the victims in Co Armagh and had no choice but to defend themselves," Cronin writes. "Interestingly enough," he continues, "Edmund Burke held the same view; indeed he expressed his feelings more vigorously than Tone." (Catholic tenants were being driven from their farms in County Armagh by the Peep O' Day Boys, who in 1795 became the Orange Boys, and later the Orange Order).
"The sufferers are accused of being the authors of the violence against them," Burke wrote. "Dreadful it is, but it is now plain enough, that Catholic Defenderism is the only restraint upon Protestant Ascendency." (As cited by Sean Cronin from the correspondence of Edmund Burke in Irish Nationalism.) Were it only so that history not repeat itself in the present day on this island and that the recent spirit of moderation exhibited by Dr Robert Saulters and his fellow Orangemen might prove to be a permanent fixture. - Mise le meas, (Dr) FRANCIS COSTELLO,
Boston,
Massachussets.