There was no Kristellnacht on the South Mall

IN his review (November 5) of Gerard Murphy’s new book, The Year of Disappearances: Political Killings in Cork, 1921-1922, Eoghan Harris refers to a comment (not a “jibe”) I made several years ago (now quoted in the book) that “there was no ethnic cleansing on the South Mall”.

Senator Harris suggests that in the light of Dr Murphy’s book I might wish to “revisit “the comment.

“Ethnic cleansing” is a phrase I shouldn’t have used. Indeed, since it has a clear and specific meaning in the context of the Balkans in the 1990s, it is anachronistic and misleading to apply it to other complex historical conflicts, as in the Ireland of 1920-1923.