The 14th annual Dr Douglas Hyde Conference was held at the weekend in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, on the theme "Reassessment: Irish leaders of the 20th century".

One of the speakers was Dr Ronald Anderson, whose biography of Lord Edward Carson will be published in the autumn. The Carson family invited him to write the book and gave him unique access to Carson's private papers, which were hitherto thought destroyed in the London Blitz. The family feels that now is the time to tell the truth about its illustrious forebear, hoping this will aid in strengthening the peace process.

Anderson said that what is generally known about Carson - that he wanted a Protestant state for a Protestant people, and that he didn't know how to say "yes" - is a myth the private papers refute. Carson's father was a corrupt architect who brought shame and ruin on the family. This deeply influenced the son who, for all of his life, was the essence of integrity.

Another new fact revealed was that Carson had a homosexual brother who fled Dublin and died in exile. This explained why Carson decided to take on the Marquess of Queensberry libel case, in which he destroyed Oscar Wilde in the courtroom. On the face of it, it seemed an extraordinary decision. The two had been boyhood friends and fellow students at Trinity College in Dublin, and their families were friends. Carson bitterly regretted his involvement in the case in later life.

He gave his services free of charge in the case of George Archer-Shee, a British Catholic naval cadet who had been dismissed and prosecuted for theft. (Terence Rattigan based his 1946 play The Winslow Boy on the case.) Carson pursued it through the courts for three years until his client won, in atonement for what he had done to Wilde.

How did a Dubliner become Ulster unionist champion? James Craig, the leader of Ulster unionism, saw his charisma and oratorial gifts and knew he could use him to defeat Home Rule. Carson saw partition as a wrecking strategy and never dreamt it would come to pass. He also opposed the arming of the hawks, ever countenancing caution. When the gunrunning happened, he was heartbroken. He was relieved when war broke out and he could put the Ulster Volunteer Force at the disposal of the government. But he was devastated by the annihilation of the 36th Ulster Division at the Somme, believing himself responsible for the loss of all those young men.

Carson had distanced himself by the time partition came and Craig had taken over. He felt he and Irish unionism had been merely pawns in the Conservative strategy to defeat the Liberals. He retreated to the south of England and brooded on the Irish question, feeling especially the betrayal of the Southern unionists. Anderson said Carson could never stomach the sectarianism of Ulster unionism. He never attended the Northern Ireland parliament.

Appointed to the House of Lords by the Conservatives, on his first day there he told a number of the Conservatives how much he hated them. His private papers show he wanted to be buried in England beside his daughter. Craig manoeuvred his young wife into allowing his burial in Belfast. They gave him a tomb, but not a home, said Anderson; he died with his heart broken over a broken country. Anderson finished by saying it was up to present-day Ulster unionists to give Carson back his heart by engaging to the full in the power-sharing executive.

Speaking on John Charles McQuaid, who was archbishop of Dublin from 1940 to 1972, Prof Dermot Keogh of University College Cork rejected the suggestion that Archbishop McQuaid was the "ruler of Catholic Ireland". The Catholic Church did not reduce the political class to subservience, and McQuaid was dominant in his archdiocese but not in others, so nor was he ruler in an ecclesiastical sense. Keogh said McQuaid was made the scapegoat for generations of failure in the State.

Despite the close relationship between Archbishop McQuaid and ╔amon de Valera, there were a number of occasions when de Valera outmanoeuvred or stood up to him.

Relations between the two were not very harmonious between 1940 and 1948, especially during the primary teachers' strike of 1946, when Archbishop McQuaid sided with the teachers.

There was a dramatic increase in his influence during the years of the first interparty government. Keogh described Seβn MacBride, its minister for external affairs, as "almost obsequious" in his attitude to McQuaid. The hierarchy's strong stand in the Mother and Child scheme was therefore unsurprising, he said. After 1951, Archbishop McQuaid's influence was never as great again.

Some of the other Irish leaders discussed at this year's conference were James Connolly, Arthur Griffith and Cearbhall ╙ Dβlaigh.