Stephen Collins, The Irish Times and the Easter Rising

An Phoblacht invites Stephen Collins to reply

Letters to the Editor, The Irish Times

Madam,

I HAVE no idea what went through the minds of those who blew up PSNI Constable Ronan Kerr. Your Political Correspondent, Stephen Collins, thinks the 1916 Rising did (April 16^th). On this basis he wants an ‘honest’ and a 'mature' examination of the Rising that will, if it agrees with Collins’s spurious reasoning, undermine a positive assessment of the Easter 1916 Rebellion.

The last time such thoughts were encountered was when the then Political Correspondent of the Sunday Tribune suggested that Neil Jordan’s 1996 film, Michael Collins, might undermine parliamentary democracy. It was none other than Stephen Collins, who allows his alternative positive assessment of the Irish Parliamentary Party (eclipsed by Sinn Féin in the 1918 election) to undermine his better judgement.

If he wants to question the killers of Ronan Kerr, Stephen Collins should not try to link them to, as a means of reversing, a generally positive view of the struggle for independence. He will fail to reverse it and, consequently, the people who will welcome his linkage are the killers of Ronan Kerr.

Yours etc.,

NIALL MEEHAN

Dublin 7