Sir, - Kevin Myers will no doubt be grateful to Brian Murphy for having included in his defence of Patrick Pearse (Opinion, August 2nd) several quotations in which Pearse establishes both his love of democracy and his rejection of bloodshed. In Mr Myers's next attack on the Pearse mythology - and there will be a next one, since Mr Myers will not let the subject alone - he will not make the mistake of leaving "hypocrite" off his list of charges against Pearse, if only to forestall the sort of absurd defence that Father Murphy constructed.
We may judge by his words a man who has never actually done anything; but when words and actions conflict we must accept the latter as definitive. Whatever his words may have been, Pearse's actions were those of a bloodthirsty fascist. Not only did he and his colleagues fail to seek a democratic mandate for their Rising, but they were also fully aware that had a mandate been sought it would not have been granted. The Irish people had not yet attained Pearse's level of wisdom and understanding; we did not know what was good for us and Pearse was going to see that we got it whether we wanted it or not.
Pearse can be defended, but not as a peace-loving democrat. It is difficult to defend him on the basis of results - the results, by the way, not so much of the Rising itself but of the incredibly inept British response in the aftermath. Thousands of people died to achieve rather less than could have been achieved by intelligent and spirited negotiation. Still, Father Murphy may actually approve of the pogrom of Protestants and their Catholic fellow-travellers and of our thugocracy, with the remnants of which we are still living, which were the only other, if indirect, products of Easter, 1916.
If he does not, may I suggest the absurd, but perfectly respectable theory that a nation's independence is too precious to be received as a gift, but must always be won by blood? - Yours, etc.,
William Hunt, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6W.