Fighting for the empire and for Home Rule

I AGREE with some of your editorial comment (Irish Examiner, June 27) concerning the Battle of the Somme, but feel it missed one very important point.

Those who fought in 1916 and in the War of Independence were fighting for their own country in a just cause.

They also, unfortunately, had little choice but to use force, whatever the revisionists say.

While the hearts of the Irish in World War I were undoubtedly in the right place in many instances, the fact remains they were fighting for an imperial power in one of the most senseless wars waged.

We should always bear that difference in mind when facing up to the Great War’s legacy.

Judy Peddle

7 Love Lane

Charleville

Co Cork

I WISH to congratulate you on your coverage of the Irish on the Somme (Irish Examiner, June 27-29).

But let it be clearly understood we are commemorating the heroism of Irishmen (Dubs, Leinsters, Munsters, Connaughts, Inniskillings, etc) willing to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of the Belgians and for Home Rule in their own country.

It implies no commendation of the British government’s conduct of the war and certainly not of the generals who sent so many brave men (English lions no less than Irish lions) to their deaths in so futile and callous a fashion. Surely the heroic sacrifice of these men was worthy of peace and reconciliation in Ireland.

Dr Gerald Morgan

School of English

Trinity College

Dublin 2