Internet culture is obsessed with winning arguments, not with coming to understanding. Rather than accumulating facts and figures with which to win arguments, I want an understanding of how people felt about what was happening around them, and fiction can often convey that far better than nonfiction. I don't read to collect ammunition to win arguments. I read to come to understanding.

So what happens on a discussion forum when what you read about something is just simply totally wrong? Do you just let it pass and allow the myth to stand, or do you attempt to inform and correct it?

Two examples out of many on this thread alone:

The Curragh Mutiny in March 1914 that wasn't even a mutiny was an act of military aggression - put plainly and simply - IT WASN'T.

The Irish Home Rule Bill of 1914 was thrown out and defeated - put plainly and simply - IT WASN'T it received Royal Assent on the 18th September 1914.

The only way to correct and destroy a myth, no matter how dearly held, is present the facts and figures that show the myth to be exactly what it is and the best source for accumulating the required facts and figures is from Historical works, NOT works of fiction. On numerous occasions on threads on this forum I have been told by one particular poster that because it was depicted in a Television drama then whatever was being shown MUST HAVE HAPPENED in real life - totally ridiculous.

I also find it rather telling that when confronted by the actual facts and figures that confront the myth, those supporting the myth never address or counter those facts or figures. It has nothing whatsoever to do with winning arguments it has everything to do with establish truth and that is truth from a whole range of perspectives.

If you are studying or discussing the period and era of the Easter Rising then what happened afterwards is irrelevant as none of that could have had any bearing on the event under discussion.

Was the Easter Rising a useless waste? Yes it was to everyone except those who wished to promote armed struggle (Exactly the same could be said about "The Troubles"). Would Ireland have gained home rule and then total independence had there been no Easter Rising yes it would the Bill was already on the statue books. Would the North have still elected to break away, yes in all probability it would as it's industry, commerce and culture was more aligned to the mainland than that of the South and they would naturally look to their own best interests.

The Easter Rising was only one of a number of factors that led to a landslide election victory for Sinn Fein in the 1918 election and in the following War of Independence and the Irish Civil War that followed on from that it was The Irish Free State/Irish Republics claim to the North that was the source that fomented all subsequent bloodshed in Ireland - thankfully that constitutional claim has now been abandoned