Ireland’s Great War victims – a true story that’s still hard to confront

THE indefatigable Tom Cooper has written an important and uncomfortable letter (March 1) on the subject of the cynical exploitation of the Irish war dead in the First World War.

Some of his points bear the ring of truth, a truth that is still difficult for many of us to confront.

The Irish who fought alongside the British in that war, followers of John Redmond (Clongowes and Dublin University) and supporters of Home Rule, were indeed lied to and deceived by the British (as indeed was TE Lawrence, Meyricke Exhibitioner, Jesus College Oxford) in Arabia in 1918.