Madam, - For once the admirable Brendan MacWilliams has got his wind blowing in the wrong direction (Weather Eye,July 12th).
The "Protestant wind" of Lilliburlero was not the easterly that propelled William of Orange to England in November 1688, but the westerly that delayed the departure to Ireland of the new Catholic lord deputy, Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnell, from Holyhead in January 1687, the year in which Lilliburlero was probably written. The ballad is entirely a satirical expression of Protestant apprehensions about the appointment of the leading Irish Catholic politician of the time to head the Irish government.
Mr McWilliams also states that under the modern Gregorian calendar the battle of the Boyne was fought on July 12th, 1690. Strictly speaking this is incorrect. Under the Julian calendar, still used in Britain and Ireland at the time, the battle was fought on July 1st. In the 17th century the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars was 10 days. Therefore, under the modern calendar, the date of the battle was July 11th.
This indeed is the date used in the correspondence of contemporaries, such as the French and Dutch, who had adopted the new calendar. The Gregorian calendar was eventually adopted in Britain and Ireland in 1752. After 1700 the gap between the two calendars widened to 11 days, which resulted in July 12th being identified as the conversion date for the Boyne. But, of course, for a date in 1690 it would have been proper to base the calculation on the 17th-century gap of 10 days. - Yours, etc,
HARMAN MURTAGH, Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone, Co Westmeath.