A chara, - Some recent correspondents to The Irish Times have used the subject "commemorating the Irish war dead" as a means of displaying their own distaste for any commemoration of Irish nationalism.
John Rochfort (November 27th) is critical of the IRFU playing a simple ballad - The Fields of Athenry - at rugby matches, condemns our National Anthem and refers to the tone of some other correspondents as being "bitter and anglophobic".
As a proud Irishman I find it galling to be encouraged on the one hand, to commemorate the war dead who fought for King or Queen, while on the other hand to forget those who died fighting in an attempt to obtain a nation's freedom from that very same King or Queen. Why, indeed, should the commemoration of any war and its dead be so selective?
It is ironic that many of those, who insist that the commemoration of the Irish war dead who fought with the British army is forgotten, are content to condemn any commemoration of those who fought against the British occupation of our country.
I suspect that many who hold such a view might only be satisfied if the IRFU permitted our rugby team to run out at Lansdowne Road to The Dam Busters and then to stand to attention for a rendition of God Save the Queen. - Is mise,
E.F. FANNING, Churchtown, Dublin 14.