Sir, - Referring to the proposed memorial at Messines to officially commemorate the Irish who fought in the first World War, Kevin Myers querulously keeps nagging about "dawn finally breaking through our amnesia" (The Irish Times, December 30th). He is, of course, rubbing it in rather than seeking information.Likewise, one can only hope that he in turn will see the light about the integrity of the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence. I'm afraid that his "us and them" implication of identification with those Irish soldiers is a bit vicarious and misappropriated. He would not have been one of "them". They were very much one of "us".Many, many of them (apart from the Connaught mutiny at all) returned home, disillusioned and devalued, to fight for "the freedom of small nations" in their own subjected country. Tom Barry, about whom Myers hasn't a good word to say, learned his trade (which he put to such classic use at Crossbarry) fighting for the British in Mesopotamia. They were good soldiers; a great generation.The longed-for dawning of the day should shed light all round. Orange and green are wed by the white in the Tricolour which reconciles the tangled history of the times that were in it and renders the island of Ireland such a catalytic asset to Europe. - Yours, etc.,J. P. Duggan,Upland Road,Birmingham.