Madam, – Peter Mulvany (November 8th) writes very movingly about the direct Irish experience of Nazi fascism and highlights thereby the importance of remembering the role played by Irish men and women in combating Nazism during the second World War.
It is with a view to raising awareness of this role that the French department in Trinity College Dublin has been holding a series of colloquiums since 2008 on the Irish in the second World War, with the next one, scheduled for November 19th, looking specifically at the themes of resistance, occupation and remembrance.
At the end of our last colloquium (June 2008), Yvonne McEwen, our colleague at the Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars at Edinburgh University, presented a roll of honour of the Irish men and women who died in the conflict. The number of names to be added to the list has been growing thanks to the very welcome participation of the public.
We might recall in this respect the inscription on the back of the Resistance medal awarded to one of my predecessors in Trinity’s School of Languages, Samuel Beckett, in honour of his great courage – “Patria non immemor” (The homeland is not forgetful). – Yours, etc,