Sir, – Permit me to make some comments about the observations made by Prof Geoffrey Roberts (March 31st) in regard to my piece ("Democratic path would not have brought independence", Opinion & Analysis, March 30th).
First, he maintains that I miss “the point of John Bruton’s argument in favour of home rule and a peaceful and a democratic transition to Irish independence”.
In fact, I did address that very point and gave precise examples, taken from the words and actions of John Redmond, to show that a peaceful transition to Irish independence was rendered null by the reality of British rule in Ireland.
I have no wish to rehearse my argument but the words of John Redmond, on July 12th, 1916, that the terms of the proposed Home Rule Act amount “to a declaration of war on the Irish people, and to the announcement of a policy of coercion” merit further consideration.
So too does the Mansion House Declaration, on April 18th, 1918, in which representatives from all Irish political parties stated that the Conscription Act “must be regarded as a declaration of war on the Irish nation”.
In this context, there would appear to be no place for an Irish settlement based on peaceful evolution.
Second, Prof Roberts observes that the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 did secure more independence for Ireland than a home rule settlement but asks whether it was worth all the deaths and violence of the years 1916-1923.
The question is a fair one but it appears to make the Irish responsible for the deaths and violence of those years.
In fact, as I pointed out in my article, the decision by the British government to refuse the representatives of Dáil Éireann a hearing at the Paris Peace conference of January 1919 provided the clearest of signs that peaceful democratic appeals would not secure Irish independence.
Possibly, if Prof Roberts focused rather more on the dynamic underlying British imperial and military/naval policies at this time, both he, and John Bruton, would have rather more sympathy for “a small nation rightly struggling to be free” than for the imperial power which ruled it.
Time and space prevent any consideration of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, as suggested by Prof Roberts, but I would be happy to address the issue, especially with reference to the role of the Irish Republican Brotherhood , in the future. – Yours, etc,
Dr BRIAN
P MURPHY, OSB
Glenstal Abbey,
Murroe,
Co Limerick.