Irish fighting in the trenches believed they were consolidating a freedom already won

LIKE Dr Pat Walsh (Letters, May 12), I too welcome the debate on Gallipoli in the columns of the Irish Examiner.

How else can we hope to understand the complexity of Ireland’s history and resolve present disagreements and differences of perspective? It is a hard matter indeed to put ourselves in the hearts and minds of the Irish on V beach on April 25, 1915 and in the GPO on April 24, 1916.

As an Englishman I try to form a sympathetic insight into the events of 1914-15 and 1916 alike since these have determined for better or for worse our present view of Ireland in 2010. I would ask Dr Walsh what he thinks patriotic Irishmen and women ought to have done in 1914 and 1915 with no sense of an Easter Rising to come in 1916?