Talk:Peter Hart (historian)

This guy is a fraud. His bias against the Irish is easily seen. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.126.138.192 (talk) 14:15, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Why is it that anyone who voices a revisionist view of the Irish War off Independence is personally attacked for being racist and biased? It seems that if you peddle any old story about the conflict that as long as it is pro-Republican it must be true. Plenty of Irish men and women did not support Sinn Fein or the IRA. In the 1918 General Election 476,087 people voted for Sinn Fein whilst 220,837 voted for the Irish Parliamentary Party,8,183 for other Nationalist parties whilst 297,149 voted Unionist. That means that over 526,169 (including minority parties) voted against Sinn Fein's vision of Ireland's future. In effect it was only Britain's pechant for First Past the Post elections rather than PR that allowed SF to win the majority of seats. Those are the facts. Not everyone supported SF or the IRA. Hart has the cheek to point this inconvenient fact out. The controversy surrounding the Kilmichael Ambush will probably never be fully resolved. It is likely that Barry did deliberately have all the Auxiliaries killed, after all that is the point of an ambush - anyone with the most rudimenatary military training could tell you that. War is a messy business and counter-insurgency more so. The Republicans saw the Castle regime and its supporters as an occupying power and the Unionists saw the Republicans as rebels and traitors. Victory, and vctory alone has vindicated the SF/IRA image as liberators of an oppressed nation. That is why every effort is made to whitewash IRA atrocities during the war and an equal effort degree of effort is made to amplify all British atrocities. As an Irishman I think its time we looked objectively at our own history and stopped treating it as some sort of emotional experience. It is only by recognising the good and bad on both sides that we will be able to come to terms with our past. Just because Hart hioghlighst some of the less flattering aspects of the Nationalist psyche does not mean that he is wrong. For a long time Protestants were not made welcome in the Republic and even if some of those killed in West Cork in 1922 had been British spies the key word is had been not still were. The fact is they were killed by elements of the IRA and the only concievable reason was because they did not fit in with the vision of a Catholic gaelic Ireland. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gwasanaethau (talk • contribs) 09:50, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Let's use your own numbers to display some actual facts, rather than revisionist opinions such as yours: 705,071 voted nationalist as opposed to far less than half that many (297,149) supporting the unionist position. Any place in the world, that would be called a "landslide" rejection of the union.

Hart may or may not be an anti-Irish bigot; the evidence certainly leans in support of that conclusion.

But what is no longer disputable, based on the evidence presented, is that he is a poor historian. He either falsified his "interviews" with veterans of Kilmichael or he was taken in by tellers of tall tales; neither conclusion reflects well on his competence nor his integrity.

Likewise his choice of pejorative terms such as "ethnic cleansing" for what is by any reasonable standard an isolated instance of vengeance---based on the victims' previous conduct, not their faith---and one that was widely condemned by the Irish government, military and the Catholic church at the time.

There's little doubt that his choice of such terms--terms which he has subsequently lied (yes, _lied_, unless there's a "nicer" word for consciously telling an untruth and being caught at it?) about having used, displays bias on Hart's part.

Hart has consistently published claims that are not supported by the facts. That is the issue here; not your queasiness at the what occurs in ambushes or your eagerness to be "progressive" and embrace revisionist claims about Irish history that are not supported by a shred of evidence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.241.182.161 (talk) 11:06, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

The atrocities that are there are few and far between regarding the IRA. They committed a few especially up north but they are countable on the fingers of one hand. There appears to be no undue minimising of IRAs actions. Rather, there seems to be a maximising of all bad things now. Especially when people like yourself seem to think that in celebrating their victory that we may have become blind to their bad actions. Having studies wars, sieges and conflicts in general I can safely say that the IRA killed an absolutely tiny proportion of non-combatants than some of the more conventional wars. But you must admit that his claims at times go very much against logic and reason. For one thing there could be no way that he had that interview with the veterans given that one was impaired and all other veterans were dead, and his claims of ethnic cleansing when the IRA killed so few non combatants are ridiculous. One bad incident such as the Dunmanway massacre (which was condemned unilaterally by the IRA the Roman Catholic Church and the Irish people) is no justification for giving a verdict of ethnic cleansing or thatit was for a vision of a Catholic Gaelic Ireland. After all, Protestants were treated fairly after the War as opposed to Catholics up North. Frankly, his methods of research his wild conclusions and his incredible assumptions lead many people, including myself to think that he is an unreliable source at best. Take my Irish Protestant word for it.86.43.71.254 (talk) 16:12, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

"In particular Hart in a chapter entitled 'Taking it out on the Protestants' pointed to the killing of 13 Protestants in Dunmanway ..." Hart deals with 13 so that should be the number used here. The Meda Ryan list ( and the item with names)is nowhere to be seen so that has to be mentioned if it is quoted so extensively. 81.129.245.63 (talk) 17:23, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

This article is entirely unbalanced. It is not about Peter Hart and his work but about criticisms of his work which properly belong to other articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.129.245.63 (talk) 20:31, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Domer - stop the vandalising and only remove parts you think are inappropriate, providing reasons in Talk. I am not an IP hopper as stated before. BT changes the number invisibly.81.129.245.63 (talk) 11:46, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

I consider the majority of your edits to be inappropriate. Please provide an in-depth rationale for any change you would like to make prior to making it, then should there be any which have any merit they can be discussed. O Fenian (talk) 16:45, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

That is nonsense O Fenian. The vast majority of my edits survive despite your initial reversions. And references get provided.

You provide the "in-depth rationale" for reversion as you are the fault finder. Many of my changes are minor, uncontentious improvements but you can't even have them - being a patroller not an orginator.81.153.148.246 (talk) 22:45, 2 August 2009 (UTC)