Sir, - Please permit me to comment on Sean Redmond's letter of March 13th. I attended his lecture at Wynn's Hotel, but had to leave soon thereafter, though not without expressing my praise for his success in placing C. Desmond Greaves in the forefront of modern Irish history and on a par with Wolfe Tone in his generation.
This, inter alia, was in his being the progenitor of the Civil Rights Movement. Mention of him has been ignored by historical writers on the "Troubles" of recent years, one of whom disdained to accept my guidance on the matter and reduced the status of the Dublin Wolfe Tone Society to that of a debating circle.
Where Sean Redmond has erred, in my opinion, was in listing the gains of the Civil Rights movement as positive achievements. In fact, these were obtained outside of the context of the democratisation of Stormont, and thus outside of the context of Grcaves's intentions and in a manner calculated by the Tory Prime Minister, Edward Heath, to widen the sectarian divide. Thus the proroguement of Stormont in 1972, and its abolition in 1973, destroyed the colonial status of Stormont and converted the six counties of our national territory to the status of non mainland Britain.
In this circumstance, and following the explosion wantonly perpetrated by the Official IRA, as a "reprisal" for Bloody Sunday, at the paratroopers' barracks at Aldershot, Heath had achieved an apparent moral high ground whereby the terrorised became the terrorists. He thus, knowingly, left no option to the IRA but physical force, in the anticipation of routing them within a short period.
Unfortunately for him, the armed struggle proved more difficult than he had anticipated, but led the IRA into a cul de sac out of which there is now no option but the restoration of Stormont on a democratic basis. In this, Sinn Fein and the IRA may have to compensate for a loss of 25 years by another 25 of protracted ideological struggle aimed at restoring the Dissenter political ethos of 1798.
In writing a comprehensive "Life and Times of Desmond Greaves", I trust that Sean Redmond will take these matters into consideration. - Yours, etc.,
Hillside Road,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.