Insurrection was a national betrayal

YOUR correspondent Dr Gerard Morgan’s enthusiastic backing of Dr Brian Murphy’s claim that the British government ‘betrayed Home Rule is based on the conviction that a falsehood often repeated will eventually become true (letters, December 1).

The fact is that Lloyd George attempted to secure Home Rule in the summer of 1916.

He tried again in a letter to John Redmond on May 16, 1917, offering Redmond Home Rule for the 26 Counties, or an Irish convention.

Redmond, believing that America’s entry into the war might exert pressure on Ulster unionists to soften their attitude to Home Rule, opted for an Irish convention.

There were two instances of betrayal of Ireland and Irish constitutional nationalism.

The first was the 1916 insurrection and the second, the 1921 treaty negotiations in London. Dr Morgan should understand that the 1918 general election occurred inside a republican-inspired fear society producing a very low turnout.

The treaty of 1922 provided the political context in which republican terrorist violence from 1916 to 1921, and the myth of the people behind it, could be institutionalised and presented as a morally legitimate fight for freedom - a case of another lie so often repeated that people came to believe it.

The madness and fanaticism of ‘Rebel Cork’ has much to answer for.

Pierce Martin

Celbridge

Co Kildare