Biographers at loggerheads - Ryan versus Hart - both books launched this week

national | history and heritage | news report

Tuesday October 11, 2005 00:34

by Jack Lane - Aubane Historical Society

Millstreeet, Co Cork, Ireland

Tom Barry and Michael Collins biographies launched in Dublin in the same week

Barry biographer Meda Ryan defends herself against an attack on her reputation by Collins biographer, revisionist historian, Peter Hart.

Hart, whose biography of Collins has already been termed a 'hatchet job’, will launch his book, ‘Mick’, in the Royal Irish Academy on Tuesday October 11 at 7pm.

The launch of the paperback edition of Ryan's biography of ‘Tom Barry – IRA Freedom Fighter’ is launched on Friday October 14th at 7.45pm in the Teachers’ Club, Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

Historians at odds over War of Independence

Responses to Peter Hart in Sept-Oct History Ireland

http://www.historyireland.com/magazine/features/13.5FeatC.html
http://www.historyireland.com/magazine/features/13.5FeatA.html

Meda Ryan responds to Peter Hart’s criticism

In the Sept-Oct issue of History Ireland, Irish historian Meda Ryan defends her biography of Tom Barry and responds to an attack on her reputation from Michael Collins biographer, the revisionist historian, Peter Hart.

Peter Hart accused Ryan of prejudice and of having "a catalogue of excuses for killing", referring to IRA actions in the Irish War of Independence of 1919-21.

NO SUPPORT FOR HART’S POSITION
Four letters were published in History Ireland supporting Ryan against Hart’s allegation in his The IRA and its Enemies that legendary IRA commander Tom Barry was a "liar" and a "serial killer". Hart claims there was no false surrender at the Kilmichael ambush in November 1920. In the accepted version, British troops took up arms again after surrendering, and killed IRA volunteers who stood to take the British surrender. Hart claimed to have found new documentary and participant evidence for his view.

MISLEADING USE OF EVIDENCE
However, Ryan demonstrated that Professor Hart used evidence misleadingly, leaving out important information that contradicted his view. Professor Hart was also accused by historian Brian Murphy of similar practice in relation to killings of former loyalist spies and informers near Bandon in April 1922.

Ryan argued that the killings were not sectarian, though they were against IRA orders granting an amnesty for those who had actively aided the British war effort. She brought forward new evidence undermining the Hart case that republican violence had a dominant sectarian dimension. Hart has been shown to consistently hide from public view evidence that exonerated the IRA of sectarianism and Tom Barry of lying about what happened at Kilmichael. The past four issues of History Ireland presents both sides of the argument.

DEAD MAN TALKING
One issue attracting increasing attention is Professor Hart’s claim to have anonymously interviewed a participant in the Kilmichael ambush six days after records indicate the last participant died on November 13 1989. Hart refuses to name the alleged informant who claimed there was no false surrender.

In the new paperback edition of Tom Barry – IRA Freedom Fighter (Mercier 14.99) Ryan lists when all participants in the Kilmichael ambush died, putting further pressure on Peter Hart to explain a very curious anomaly.

ACADEMIC SUPPORT FOR RYAN
Maynooth University historian Andreas Boldt, a conscientious objector, some of whose family were persecuted and killed by the Nazis, objected in History Ireland to Professor Hart placing conscientious objectors like himself on the same plane as Nazis. Boldt criticised Professor Hart for using "emotional and aggressive language" and said that Ryan seemed to "have a surer touch of what was going on".

In a sign of further academic support for Ryan University of Limerick History Department Head, Ruan O’Donnell, will launch the new paperback edition of Ryan's Tom Barry IRA Freedom Fighter on Friday October 14th in the Teachers' club at 7.45pm.