Talk:Declaration of Independence (Ireland)
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The original paragraph: "Many took this phrase to mean the garrison in uniform - the police and army - but as the war developed it legitimised attacks on loyalists and Protestants[1], even if their ancestors had lived on the island for 400 years. Many loyalists and Protestants subsequently left the island. In Ulster this phraseology and the subsequent attacks by the IRA motivated loyalists to accept the British 1920 formula for home rule in Northern Ireland[2]." is blatantly biased.
There is considerable debate about the even-handedness of Harte's research in this area. If the proposition that the Irish Declaration of Independence was used to justify attacks on "loyalists and Protestants", then reference should be made to IRA policy in this area, or even local commander orders. Just because P. Harte suspects that is so, does not make it unquestionable, and certain it does not deserve to be presented in such a matter of fact way.
The fact is that some IRA leaders themselves were Protestants. For example - Sam Maguire in West Cork - the area in which Harte makes his most significant claim of an anti-Protestant agenda.
Harte construes all attacks on Protestants at that time as being sectarian in nature. There is little hard evidence to prove this, and even less to suggest that it was actually Republican policy. And thus, there is absolutely no evidence that the Declaration of Independence was ever interpretted, formally or informally, as justification for attacks on Protestants.
"It was rivalled by the administration of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland". What does that mean? DJ Clayworth (talk) 15:28, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
"President Wilson of the USA had suggested that the Versailles Conference would be inclusive and even-handed,". Did Wilson actually recommend the inclusion of the Irish Free State, or is this an interpretation of what he said? DJ Clayworth (talk) 15:30, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
