FYI

The current issue of the Dublin Review of Books is on line at http://www.drb.ie/ Amongst the many interesting articles, I will mention two: one on Seamus Heaney by Barra Ó Seaghda and one by Tom Wall on “Southern Loyalists in the War of Independence”.

Ó Seaghda is a marvellous critic and his piece on Heaney is well worth reading for its insight. I have never met Ó Seaghda but never cease to be amazed by his ability. I first came across him a lifetime ago when he was writing for the magazine Graph. (Now there is a blast from the past for some of you!) It’s great to see that he is a regular contributor with DRB. No more hunting through the bookshops to enjoy his work.

Tom Wall’s article is a must for anyone with an interest in contemporary Irish politics. Taking the book, Coolacrease: the true story of the Pearson executions – an incident in the Irish War of Independence, by Paddy Heaney (not the Irish News Paddy Heaney), as his starting point, Wall looks at the very contentious issue of how Protestants in the South fared at the hands of the IRA during the War of Independence. Wall offers a nuanced and balanced look at those terrible years – and many of the events recalled are still harrowing despite the passage of time.

Wall writes: “As in all countries, there is an uncomfortable side to national history and the time is right for honest and balanced telling. It is a story that was, for most, “a forgotten history”: nationalists for long ignored or denied it (some still do) and southern Protestants kept quiet for fear of re-igniting the awful passions of the past. In the telling, some may have lost perspective and balance. It is a mistake to exaggerate the extent of the injustice or to romanticise the southern Protestant story – they had their share of sectarians and diehards – or to use the excesses of a few to denigrate the courage and idealism of the many involved in the struggle for independence. We all, descendants of victors and victims, Protestant, Catholic and freethinkers alike, deserve the truth about our history, warts and all. But the issues needs to be researched and debated calmly and not as a continuation of the, now hopefully redundant, conflict.”

Carrying on the blogging theme, Fergus O’Donoghue, SJ, editor of the journal, Studies, is now blogging himself and very good he is too on religion, contemporary Ireland and its travails. Fergus is a wonderful writer and a very understanding man who does not get angry when some of his reviewers (ahem!) don’t file on time. (I promise I will make the deadline this time!)
His blog is to be found at http://www.studiesirishreview.ie/

Plenty of learning out there and, I am told, it is lightly carried.