A couple of events in London next week worth noting. Firstly, The Connolly Association brings us details of a talk by historian Ruan O’Donnell at Hammersmith Irish Centre on Wednesday:
Date: 14 November (Wednesday)
Time: 7pm, Irish Centre, Hammersmith, London
Speaker: Ruan O’Donnell; chair: Peter Berresford Ellis.
Further details tel. 0044 (0)207 8333022
A LEADING authority on the United Irish movement and the Irish rebellions against British rule of 1798 and 1803, the radical Irish historian Ruan O’Donnell has been turning his attention to more recent times – in particular the IRA’s Border Campaign of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The meeting at the Hammersmith Irish Centre on 14 November will provide a fascinating foretaste of his forthcoming book on the subject
Meeting organised by the Four Provinces Bookshop.
The Irish Democrat’s John Murphy has an intriguing description of O’Donnell’s thesis:
when De Valera and Fianna Fail returned to power in 1951, they fell
totally silent on the northern injustices they had previously been so
vocal on, and Britain’s responsibility for their continuance. The Fine
Gael-led coalition which also held office in the 1950s said nothing
about them either. The reason was the Cold War. If Ireland had sought
to raise the misdeeds of the northern unionist regime at the United
Nations or in other international forums at the time, the Russians
would have supported it. America and Ireland’s vocal Cold Warriors
would in turn have been furious.
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