Sir, - In his Irishman's Diary on 1798 (August 2nd), Kevin Myers equates the sometimes violent consequences of the struggle for Irish self-determination with the violence inflicted by the occupying power and fails to address adequately the justness of its cause. He thus effectively endorses imperial hegemony in Ireland.
This fits with his general preoccupation with insisting that the violence pursued in the struggle for independence had no more legitimacy than that employed by contemporary terrorism. It also fits with his ongoing efforts to justify British imperialism (references to upheaval in Europe in this instance), which, in its disregard for the rights of others, was, together with other European imperialisms, a precursor of the more extreme variant pursued by Germany in the first half of this century.
Nobody would argue against the view that the violence used to contain Germany's aggression was justified, yet Myers attempts such an argument in the case of Ireland.
While it is perhaps inevitable that diatribes of this kind will appear in British nationalist journals such as the Sunday Telegraph, why does Mr Myers repeat them virtually ad nauseam in this country's leading newspaper? He should take a rest from such nonsense and learn that indulging in polemics is no substitute for reasoned argument based on an appreciation of history. - Yours etc.,
David Moane,
North Great Georges Street, Dublin 1.