Large areas of the country were denuded of Protestants and those remaining only hung on by a thread

IT is difficult to fathom what Dr Martin Mansergh TD really is saying on hidden history and the fate of Protestants in or around the 1920s (Letters, January 7).

He gives a sort of grudging approval to Niamh Sammon’s excellent TV programme on the Coolacrease killings, but then says “the charge that the programme was insufficiently nuanced may well be true”.

Also he stated that the justification of military necessity is doubtful in the case of Coolacrease and, most astonishingly, that it can be questioned whether the treatment meted out to the Pearsons met the standard of avoiding “wanton cruelties”.