Sir, - Your monumental "Eye on the 20th Century" (The Irish Times, December 30th) is a commendable and useful publication. It is a pity that on page 23 there is a significant omission. Under key dates for the second decade, it gives for 1914 the Curragh Mutiny on March 20th, the Home Rule Bill enacted on May 25th and the minuscule and reactive Howth gun-running on July 26th, but omits the much more significant date of April 24th, when a substantial shipload of guns was imported into Larne from Germany, with the connivance of the British Tory military establishment and the turning of a blind eye by the Imperial Defence Committee.
These and other related matters are treated in the re-issue by UCD Press, with my introduction, of the book by my father, Joe Johnston, Civil War in Ulster, first published in October 1913. In this he attempted (alas, unsuccessfully) to pre-empt the processes which led to the Larne gun-running.
This event set the scene for the rest of the century: it was the introduction of the gun into Irish politics, subverting the constitutional process; it was a Tory armed conspiracy, basically a coup d'etat against the Liberal Government. Its current relevance is that it exposes the fraudulence of the unionist claim to the moral high ground regarding "decommissioning". Why, in such an otherwise excellent publication as your "Eye on the 20th Century" do you choose to ignore it? - Yours, etc.,
Roy Johnston, Rathmines, Dublin 6, Ireland.