Madam, - As we prepare to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, and as some begin, yet again, to slate the Irish who fought and died in British regiments during that period, it is important to reflect on a point that is often overlooked.
Many of those same Irishmen, having returned from the trenches, made up the numbers necessary for the success of the Irish War of Independence. They did so using all the training and experience they had gained in the British army.
So here, then, is the terrible hypocrisy: the Irish in British regiments who survived the Great War are today our heroes of the Irish War of Independence, while their brothers, cousins and neighbours who died are the ones whose names have been so often besmirched.
Thankfully, at a time when the Vatican has decided to scrap the concept of Limbo, Tom Burke (Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association) and a handful of others are helping to extricate the memories of these men from the orchestrated oblivion to which they were condemned. - Yours, etc,
LIAM O'MEARA, Chairman, Inchicore Ledwidge Society, Emmet Crescent, Inchicore, Dublin 8.