A Chara, - It may be politically correct for Fintan O'Toole (Exam Times, June 7th), quoting Prof Roy Foster, to write that Thomas Mac Donagh "Went out to kill and die for Ireland in the Easter Rising", but in my opinion his words are pejorative and unhistorical. Prof Joe Lee, in Ireland 1912-1985, writes: "And however profusely blood sacrifice sentiments splatter the later writings of Pearse and Mac Donagh, and however retrospectively relevant they appeared to be in the circumstances, it seems unhistorical to interpret these sentiments as the basis for the planning of the Rising."
O'Toole's further assertion that Mac Donagh had a hatred of the British Empire is also open to debate. Like Prof Foster, he does not appear to understand that historical Irish nationalism was essentially pro-Irish, as opposed to being a negative entity. - Yours, etc.
Anthony Jordan, Gilford Road, Dublin 4.