Incidentally
My comments were not politically "subjective" - the facts I put forward are an undisputed matter of history
My point was about the availability and flow of information - a gap filled by the song repertoire
The efforts to limit information is pretty plain from the number of books on the famine, but is underlined by the fact that, despite large swathes of Ireland being Irish-speaking a conscious effort was being made to suppress the language
We have recorded a number of accounts of children being given the "stick" treatment at school - a short stick was hung around the necks of pupils and each time they were heard speaking Irish, a notch was put in it
At the end of the week, the pupil received the indicated number of strokes of the cane
What is this if it is not an attempt to control expression of opinion ?
Jim Carroll