Failures of British Empire can’t be whitewashed

Desmond FitzGerald is missing a few things when give us his Irish history lesson (Letters, December 22).

Firstly, he says ‘Irish people had the same rights as their British equivalent’ but the majority of Irish had few rights because of their religion. A million Irish people died in the Famine in a metropolitan area of an empire.

Does Desmond FitzGerald believe that would have happened in the Home Counties?He is right that “in 1914 the Westminster Parliament passed legislation providing for Home Rule on the entire island of Ireland as one political unit” in face of opposition. But he blames 1916 for its non-implementation. But had parliament not a duty to implement its own act?