TV eye:Bóthar na Saoirse Guerilla days in Ireland: Scéal Tom Barry My fight for Irish freedom: Scéal Dan Breen On another man’s wound: Scéal Ernie O’Malley Black Rock Pictures for TG4, autumn 2010 by John Gibney

Ernie O’Malley—according to John McGahern, his On another man’s wound is a classic of Irish literature. (Brian Gallagher)

It is a commonplace to draw a distinction between the conflicts of 1919–21 and 1969–94—or, more accurately, the supposed distinction is between the different manifestations of the IRA who fought in these periods. It is a comforting rhetorical strategy for some Irish nationalists, for if such a distinction can be drawn, then the thorny issue of moral or ethical equivalence can be sidestepped. But can it really be? For example, what if the more recent troubles had lasted only two and a half years? And what if the War of Independence had lasted 25? How would these conflicts have evolved? And how would we view them? It is an uncomfortable conundrum that lurks at the foundation of Irish independence. One of the interviewees here was Martin McGuinness, who understandably had no problem with drawing a continuity between the two eras. But attempts could be made to draw other continuities. Pro-unionist polemicists seized upon aspects of Peter Hart’s research to give legitimacy to strident and as yet unsubstantiated allegations of ‘ethnic cleansing’, for to characterise Irish republicanism as sectarian in the past was to cast it as sectarian in the present. But in this regard, present politics could get the better of history. For while Hart, a Canadian, had indeed suggested that the concept had a relevance to Ireland, this was not a point that he himself continued to press; quite the opposite. Hart was far more fair-minded than some of his critics allowed, and had bemoaned, with good reason, how Kilmichael and Dunmanway overshadowed the rest of what he had written. In his later work, namely The IRA at war (2003), he seems to have moved away from some of the more eye-catching assertions made in his earlier career to arrive at more nuanced conclusions about the nature of the Irish revolution, and most especially the role of ethnicity and sectarianism within that revolution. It would have been interesting to see how his thought developed. His flawed but impressive body of work remains of great importance to the study of that revolution. But the fact remains that very serious methodological criticisms were levelled at key aspects of Hart’s research into the Cork IRA, and he never satisfactorily answered them in his lifetime; they will continue to cast a shadow over his work.