Let the dust settle on our old battleground

IN recent months there has been an exchange of correspondence in your letters columns regarding the actions of republicans against Protestant people in Cork during and after the Tan war.

I would like to ask both sides to please stop offering their opinions for publication.

The people who care already have their own views and are unlikely to change them while the people who don’t care are sick of these tired old arguments being dragged into the public domain once again.

Both sides make some relevant points. On the one hand, yes, some Protestants were driven from their homes by opportunists who took advantage of the situation for perceived revenge and personal profit.

It’s a sad fact that there were sectarian elements on both sides of that ugly — but ultimately necessary — conflict.

On the other hand, many Protestants left the new Free State not because of persecution, but because the removal of their false power base meant they now had to interact with the local Catholic population as equals for the first time.

Some also left because they wanted to remain under direct British rule and they could see that Ireland was in the process of separating itself from the union with Britain.

Neither side was entirely covered in glory during that time. Old hatreds and memories of past oppression caused people to react with their baser instincts.

In this time when we are trying to reach out the hand of friendship to unionists in Northern Ireland, we must not give the hardliners on either side any excuse to turn back the clock.

Rehashing past mistakes on both sides serves no purpose now.

John Smith

McKee Barracks

Blackhorse Ave

Dublin 7