Sir, - Charging revisionism with "the suppression of national pride" and "the defamation of our dead patriots", John J. Hassett (April 30th) leads us to believe that revisionism is an attack on our national identity. The fact that our national pride has never been more inflated says far more for today's modern, pluralist Ireland than it does for an understanding of national identity as steeped in old-style republicanism.
It is an established fact that there are over half-a-million British passport holders resident in Ireland. This is a sign of the diversity of our society, as is our growing multi-culturalism. Living in a country that looks to both Boston and Berlin, as well as to Belfast, it is more accurate to define our national identity in terms that reflect our success as a small country, particularly on the international stage, than in those of outdated nationalism.
That Ireland was born out of violence is a fact nobody disputes. However, there is good reason to re-examine some of the more zealous acts of our "dead patriots". A reappraisal of the means by which independence was brought is not directed against our national identity but serves instead to reconcile it with history. It is those who oppose this natural development and propagate a one sided view of our past who are the real "subversives within". - Yours, etc.,
Richard Waghorne, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.