IRE-LAND
StR,—Having read Mr. Knox's article about Dublin, I feel irritated into writing. Admittedly, most of his criticisms and " tit-bits " are true— although his remarks about holy Ireland are rather obscure—but are nevertheless over-emphasised. What he fails to mention is the indefin- able atmosphere which makes Dublin one of the most pleasant cities in
the British Isles. I wonder whether Mr. Knox has ever thought why the English are so much disliked in Ireland. It is because of that superior air with which Mr. Knox writes in his article. If anything, the Irishman is superior to any Englishman. Practically all your generals in the past war were Irish. Field-Marshals Montgomery, Ironside, Gort, Dill and Alexander are an example of how we can lead you in war better than you can yourselves. Mr. Knox must remember that we have only been governing ourselves twenty-five years, and arc still suffering from the ill-effects which the English left behind. He must also remember that the gentlemen who govern Ireland were men of force before their political responsibility. Although we :n the South did not throw our lot in with you in the war, we nevertheless provided over a quarter of a million first-
class soldiers.—Yours sincerely, DOUGLAS BROWN.
College Historical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.
SIR,—There is much truth in Mr. Rawle Knox's remarks on Ireland, though his spleen is a bit over-stimulated for one who professes bland indifference to the Irish. There is one point, however, which requires comment. The Irish will be annoyed as usual, he says, by English amazed reports of butter and eggs aplenty in Ireland. For the Irish, Mr. Knox tells us, take their butter and eggs " as integral parts of *Emit lives." This is true for the middle classes, but I should very much like to bring Mr. Knox round the Dublin slums, where 81,000 people live in one-room dwellings, some of them fifteen to a room, where cloth- ing, shelter, food, water-sup?ly and cooking problems leave little time for bothering about the Six Counties, the G.A.A., or England's attitude to Ireland. I could cite countless examples of facts which escape Mr. Knox's attention in this regard. Let one suffice In a survey of a hundred poor families in Dublin in 1944 conducted by a group of Dublin Univer- sity medical students, it was found that only eight families could afford to buy their theoretical butter ration (six ounces). It is surprising how many well-meaning English people assume that all the Irish naturally get " as an integral part of their lives what the big restaurants and hotels supply quite easily to the tourist—at a price. The price to the slum- dweller, indeed, may be not unaffected by the influx of 1,500,000 tourists last yea: ; 2,000,000 are expected this year—all no doubt as indifferent to Ireland as Mr. Knox suggests.—Yours truly,
OWEN SLECKY SKEFFINGTON.
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