Madam, – With reference to the programme If Lynch Had Invaded, shown on RTÉ on September 1st , I feel obliged to try to clear the false picture it so very prominently portrayed of my brother, Kevin Boland, former TD and government minister, whose supposed reaction at cabinet to the situation in the six counties was given great prominence.
I remember asking Kevin if the Army would go to the assistance of our fellow countrymen. He looked at me as if I was daft. Kevin had been an Army officer during the second World War/Emergency period, and he was later minister for defence. He told me that such an action would have been crazy due to the small size and poorly equipped condition of the Army at the time, and he would have had first-hand knowledge of this. The programme was based on a hypothetical situation that never occurred and was never considered to be feasible.
As I am now 84 years of age, I wondered if my recollections of this period might be a bit hazy. Then I remembered that Kevin had written a short book, We Won't Stand (Idly) By, after he had left Fianna Fáil, the government and Dáil Éireann.
I have now reread this little book, which gives a detailed account of the events by a person who was at the very heart of them. If the researchers had heeded this account, they would have seen that Kevin did not advocate invading the six counties.
Later in the programme, when the Arms Trial was touched on, it was stated that Kevin resigned his cabinet seat in support of Blaney and Haughey. In fact, Kevin resigned the day before Haughey and Blaney were sacked because he disagreed with Lynch’s approach to the crisis. – Is mise,