Sir, - I admire Kevin Myers enormously. In his column he frequently turns over the coin of accepted received wisdom and shows us that the obverse is neither wise nor acceptable.
In his Diary of June 26th, however, he makes the mistake of assuming that praise in one direction must be balanced by dispraise in another.
Peter O'Connor, who died last week, was the man who, fighting with the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, crawled out on his belly into no-man's land to bring in the body of the young Dublin poet Charlie Donnelly.
Kevin Myers allows, grudgingly, that Peter O'Connor "was, no doubt, a brave and decent man". But, he goes on to ask, was he braver or more decent than a man fighting on Franco's side? Or was either of them any braver than the many Irishmen who fought against Hitler?
As Mr Myers himself admits, those who fought the Fascists were "merely doing what their bishops and priests declared was their duty". People like Peter O'Connor made the decision to fight Franco against the wishes of Church, State and public opinion. O'Connor's colleague, Frank Edwards, a gifted teacher, was thrown out of his State job by order of the bishop and never ever taught again except in a Jewish school.
All his life, Peter O'Connor challenged injustice wherever he found it. He supported Jim Gralton of Leitrim who was shamelessly treated by Church and State for his socialist principles.
I corresponded with him and was privileged to meet him once. I got to know the indomitable spirit and character of the man through his friends Peadar O'Donnell, Norah Harkin, Frank and Bobbie Edwards and the Graltons.
Peter O'Connor was small in stature and diffident by nature, but he had the heart of a lion. - Yours, etc., Gerry O'Malley,
Old Conna Village, Bray, Co Wicklow.