Sir, - Kevin Myers writes (An Irishman's Diary, June 26th) of our need for a "moral life-belt", our need to believe that Irishmen fought against fascism in Spain, even though the Connolly Column was, indirectly, a tool of "Stalin himself". Would he accept that, Stalin notwithstanding, the Connolly Column was "against facism and for world justice", that it was on the right side? Similarly, the British Empire notwithstanding, the British Army was on the right side in 1939 and those who fought fascism in 1939 are as deserving of our respect as those who fought it first. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Carley, The Old Distillery, Beresford Street, Dublin 7.