Sir, - If you give it, you should be able to take it - and in that sense I would welcome a review by even Tim Pat Coogan of my book, Big Fellow, Long Fellow (Books, December 19th). I was highly critical of Tim Pat's biography of de Valera when it came out in 1993, but in fairness to him he never mentioned this. Instead he went on a bit of a rant that my publishers Gill and Macmillan did not want to know when he tried to interest them in publishing his biography of Collins. It seems that poor Tim Pat was therefore doubly scorned.
His ego would seem to be further offended that I have not attributed certain views to him. In fact, before Tim Pat wrote his biography of Collins, I had already written two books covering his life up to the last eight months. Before Tim Pat's biography of de Valera, I had also written short and full-length biographies of the Long Fellow and four other books on aspects of his policy extending over his 60 years in public life.
"I had already established some years ago that de Valera's ego, formed no doubt in childhood insecurity, was a prime factor in the conduct of the Civil War," Tim Pat wrote last week. Unfortunately he seems to be insinuating that I was copying his views, when the truth is that when he made that point on page 207 of his 1993 biography he actually credited my 1988 book as his source.
Of course, if he had liked my book, it would have been grounds for concern, but then there is no solace in the fact that he didn't like it, because there is no real indication that he got beyond midway through page 2 before looking at the bibliography. If he had even bothered to read further on page 2, he would find that I specifically excluded any interest in investigating de Valera's legitimacy, because that merely reflected on his parents. What was important about the controversy was the fact that rumours of his supposed illegitimacy clearly bothered him for many years.
At the end Tim Pat suggests that I should have written about de Valera's involvement with the Irish Press and the 1937 Constitution, which had nothing to do with my subject - the interaction between the lives of Collins and de Valera. Finally, Tim Pat suggests that my books should have tackled the power factor of de Valera's career. In fact, the power struggle between de Valera and Collins is actually a central theme of my book. - Yours, etc., T. Ryle Dwyer,
St Brendan's Park, Tralee, Co Kerry.