BBC Radio 4 recently reported on the gangland killings in Dublin and consulted one Irish commentator who opined that it was all to do with a (presumably) 800 year tradition of unbroken violence in Ireland. Ms Ruth Dudley Edwards would have the world believe that starting on Easter Monday 1916 there has been an unbroken chain of violence. I was born in Dublin in December 1941 and came to England in November 1964. So I’ll tell you what I remember and what I was told of violence in those 21 years.
I was baptised when I was a few days old and my Godparents, my father’s sister Maev and her husband, Bill O’Connell from Cork, both medical doctors, were unable to attend and their places were taken by proxies. Both were in England, and Uncle Bill had joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. I believe he was one of the first Medical Officers into Belsen when that site of horror was liberated in 1945. In February 1942 my mother’s brother Leo, a Warrant Officer in the Royal Army Service Corp[s went missing, presumed dead, at Singapore. I was 5 or 6 weeks old at the time and Leo was 2 years younger than my Mother. (Her brother Jack, two years older than her had at the age of 16 been badly wounded when a German shell exploded on the battlecruiser HMS Princess Royal, off Jutland in May 1916, and an elder brother Ned was badly gassed in 1918 serving with the Dublin Fusiliers.) But if there was violence at home in Ireland in my earliest years it didn’t impinge on our family or anyone we knew.
I can remember my 10th Birthday, 28 December 1951 because Radio Eireann News reported a bank robbery in Dublin. The papers were full of it because such things just didn’t happen. The perpetrators were caught and the court proceedings took acres of newsprint. They had used a starting pistol, nobody was hurt, and I suspect the culprits never tried such stunts again or became hardened criminals. By the time I left Ireland in 1964 I can’t recall of hearing of another armed bank raid in Ireland, North or South. I think it was probably 1971 before there was another bank raid in Ireland.
The late Albert Reynolds recalled how in the 1950s and 1960s he’d come home from one of his dance halls, leaving thousands of pounds overnight in the unlocked boot of his car. Terry Wogan recalled that as a bank clerk he’d collect £4,000 from one bank to take to a smaller bank in Central Dublin, carry the money in a “grip”, and stop for a coffee in Bewleys and put the bag on the floor, without any fear at all. In those days £4,000 would buy two three-bedroom bungalows in Dublin.
It’s about time the Ruth Dudley Edwards School of History was recognised for the Nonsense that it is.
Great.story.jude.
Got.it.in.one.Jim…
‘”When Wyndham Lewis spoke of the ‘fighting Irish’ in a conversation [James] Joyce countered thoughtfully: “That is not my experience . . . a very gentle race”‘
Declan Kiberd, Introduction to Ulysses
Joyce would be delighted with the mention of his name on Proclamation Day 2016. Declan Kiberd quotes Joyce:
“Had we been allowed to develop our own civilisation instead of this mock English one imposed on us, and which has never suited us, think of what an original, interesting civilisation we might have produced.”
Declan Kiberd wrote:
“Novels deal with already made societies and Ireland in 1904 was still a society in the making…”
A work in progress, one might say.
Unfortunately I know people in Dublin (family) who swallow this bull. They get their truth solely within the pages of the Sindo. It doesn’t make for an enjoyable Saturday night out especially with the rag being sold in the pubs at that time!
who is thay oul doll see her popping up here n there,
A great piece of writing that puts Ruth firmly in her place.
AJ
Hardly.
Donal’s evidence is all anecdotal.
In 1948 there were 17 murders in the South, none of which impinged on him.
That does not make RDE right of course, and I think, broadl,y he has a point; he just doesn’t make a very good case.
Great to see her being challenged people who manipulate history have to be confronted. We’ll done Jude
Grma, Liam – but t’ain’t me – it’s Donal K…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0736pkc
I know it last half an hour but anyone that’s interested, Ruth was on the panel. Another load of revisionist thinking.
Also available on other media players and the iplayer
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Its really disturbing that someone like Ruth, apparently a fully qualified Historian, who writes books, articles, etc would distort History so much just to please her agenda.
Her agenda is so warped, so crude and so obvious. You’d think she’d do a better job and try harder to pretend to be fair, like any other decent person would do if they had an agenda. Its akin to a burglar robbing someone’s house while their out but before the burglar leaves they do a massive dump on the Kitchen table and leave the front door wide open for good measure. If your going to rob me at least clean up and close the door after ya…..in the case of Ruth if your going to lie about History at least pretend your not a one sided, female version of Nelson McCausland.
When I first came across Ruth I actually thought she was from the North, born into a Protestant family with strong leanings to the Orange Order. Turned out that was wrong. She’s such a favourite of the Orange Order I believe they granted her some type of Honour Award. Of course they couldn’t make her a member, she is a Catholic, after all….
Some of the biggest UVF/UDA/RHC sympathizers (potentially members?….) on twitter have Ruth as their favourite journalist. I know, I’ve debated with these people many times and half of them can barely string a proper sentence together. And shes obviously fond of them because she likes to retweet their tweets and chat with them. What is it they say about you can judge people by the company they keep?…..
Its sad that an intelligent woman like Ruth is the way she is, she could’ve contributed much more to Irish society than the twisting of History. Her assertion that Ireland should be “grateful” that Britain raped, colonized and tortured this land and its people for centuries is an example of how soured and twisted this woman’s mind is. Her assertion that Unionists made life “unpleasant” for Catholics is another example of Ruth’s watering down and distortion of History. And when it comes to the Irish Famine/Genocide, Ruth says Irish people “portray themselves as the most oppressed people ever”. Portray, is the word she used, as if it wasn’t true. I’m just waiting for Ruth to say the 1 million dead Irish should be “grateful”….
But my favourite has got to be when Ruth was in Conway Mill in West Belfast, just a few streets from where I live (unfortunately, no, I wasn’t there but I wish I had have been because Ruth would’ve politely got a piece of my mind) in a debate with George Galloway, Gerry Kelly, Gregory Campbell, etc. (The recording, sound only, is available on youtube). Ruth replies to a member of the audience on a question about the Orange Order that “the Orange Order is willing to forgive for all the wrongs done against them if people repent” implying that the Orange Order are being wronged by Catholics. The crowd, calm and quiet up to this point, suddenly got very noisy and a few people can be heard loudly saying stuff like “they should be asking us for forgiveness!” and “aye right! way on!” and a few swear words were uttered. Ruth didn’t make any more statements like that for the rest of the debate because I wouldn’t be surprised if she got lynched…..
I remember listening to RDE during a talk in West Belfast many years ago, where she was answering a question about poverty. I cannot remember the whole thing but what stuck out was her comment:” I was discussing this recently in London at a dinner party with friends…..”. The image conjured up for me was one of a patronising group of elitist thinkers solving the problems of the poor while stuffing their gobs with the best of food and wine. Ever since, I cannot take her seriously.