Sir, - A wild happiness filled me as I read Kevin Myers's Diary (August 15th). At last he has come close, even if by a roundabout route, to understanding Irish Nationalism. A soupcon now separates him from De Valera.
For the anomaly about the 16th Irish Division is, not that John Hume neglects to mention his father's service in it. The truly strange fact is that these men, who followed Redmond's call to help Britain in her hour of need, were insulted, vilified and betrayed initially by the British military establishment. Many historians of the period have commented on this. Lloyd-George himself said it looked like malice, and perhaps it looked like malice because it was. Haig, as his diary shows, was as hostile to the 16th Division as Gough.
Those Irish soldiers were in the appalling predicament Mr. Myers's so brilliantly evokes, quite possibly because they were Irish. Being Irish, they were rather more expendable than English troops. Irish units of the Great War were often found holding the weakest section of the line, and carrying out the truly impossible attacks. (If this seems cynical, remember that in the second World War Western Desert campaign Commonwealth units often felt that they were so treated).
There is certainly a message in the fate of the 16th Irish Division. It is that those who trusted in the good faith, gratitude or loyalty of Britain to its political friends in Ireland often suffered for so doing. It is a grim message, well understood by Southern Unionists, like Carson, or by the family of William Redmond MP, in their day. Some historians think that the memory of John Redmond's recompense was a major factor in deciding De Valera on neutrality in the second World War. How close in viewpoint to Dev. Mr. Myers has come.
Perhaps, on second thoughts the statesman is wise to overlook this episode, and the diarist is, albeit dazzlingly, wrong. However, Mr Myers is now well advanced on the road to Damascus. Who knows where the next step may take him? - Yours, etc.,
Frank Fitzpatrick
Dunville Avenue, Dublin 6.