Peter Hart

Peter Hart (born c. 1970) is a Canadian historian, specialising in modern Irish history.

Life

Hart was born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland. He studied for one year at the Memorial University of Newfoundland before moving to study at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated from there with an Honours BA degree. Subsequently, Hart completed a Masters degree in International Relations at Yale University. He then moved to Ireland to do PhD work at Trinity College, Dublin. His thesis was on the Irish Republican Army in county Cork, which was the basis of his first book, "The IRA and its Enemies". After completing his doctorate, Hart accepted a five year teaching and research position at Queen's University Belfast. In 2003, having completed this contract, Hart moved back to Canada to take up the position of Canada Research Chair in Irish Studies at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is also an associate professor at Memorial University.

Works

He has written several books to date on what he terms the "Irish Revolution" of 1919-23 (more commonly referred to as the Irish War of Independence 1919-21 and the Irish Civil War 1922-23).

The first of these books is titled "The IRA and Its Enemies, Violence and Community in Cork" (1998). This is an in-depth study of the organisation, social composition and actions of the Irish Republican Army in County Cork during the War of Independence. This book won three awards, including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize (1998).

Hart has since published "British Intelligence in Ireland 1920-21: the Final Reports" (2002) and "The IRA at War 1916-23" (2004), a collection of essays on various social, political and military aspects of the IRA in these years.

Peter Hart’s latest work is a biography of Michael Collins, titled "Mick".

Hart has also contributed to the volume, "The Irish Revolution" (2002) [Joost Augusteijn(edited), "The Irish Revolution, 1913-1923", Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. ISBN-10: 0333982258 ] , which is a collection of articles by various historians of the period.

Controversy

A number of the claims Hart has made in his books have attracted controversy.

Kilmichael ambush

Hart has attracted criticism for his chapter on the Kilmichael Ambush of November 1920, in which he argues that IRA commander Tom Barry killed wounded British Auxiliaries after they had surrendered. Barry's eyewitness account of the event states that the Auxiliaries made a false surrender, killing the IRA member who stood to take it, after which he ordered that no prisoners should be taken. Hart argues that this is fabrication and that Barry had the wounded Auxiliaries killed after they had surrendered. He cites anonymous interviews which he conducted with two IRA veterans of the ambush and an unsigned typed account of the encounter from British records purporting to be the 'Rebel Commandant's Report'.

Historian Meda Ryan has cast doubt on the veracity of Hart's sources. She points out in her book, "Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter" ["Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter", Meda Ryan, Mercier Press, 2003, ISBN 1856354806] that Hart dates an interview with a veteran of the ambush (named 'AF') six days after the last known veteran, Edward (Ned) Young, died on November 13, 1989, aged 97. Apart from Young, who was impaired in his declining years, there were no other surviving veterans during the timeframe of Hart's anonymous interviews. Ryan dismissed as a British forgery a 'Rebel Commandant's Report' that Hart advanced in defence of his view. Ryan argues that the account contains knowledge about an Auxiliary (Guthrie) being "missing" and about the precise quantity of British arms, known only to the British and unknown to Barry. The 'Report' also contains factual errors regarding the sequences of events and Irish fatalities in the ambush, which were known to Barry but clearly unknown to the author of the account. The 'Report' states that one IRA member was killed outright at the ambush and that two died later of their wounds; the opposite was in fact the case. Ryan suggests that this is not something which Barry would likely get wrong.

Dunmanway killings

"see also Dunmanway Massacre"

Another controversial aspect of "The IRA and its Enemies" is Hart's claim that the IRA in Cork undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Protestants before and after the truce that ended hostilities with Britain in July 1921. In particular Hart pointed to the killing of 12 Protestants in Dunmanway in April 1922 to support his thesis. Again, this is contentious, as Meda Ryan and another historian Brian Murphy point to the omission by Hart of relevant information. [ [http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/aug2005/brianmurphyiprarticle.pdf 'The Issue of Sources', Brian Murphy] , Irish Political Review Vol 20 No 7 July 2005 (ISSN 0790-7672)] For instance, Hart quotes a sentence from a British intelligence assessment, "The Record of the Rebellion in the 6th Divisional Area", to bolster his view that the shootings were sectarian, but left out a sentence immediately following indicating that they were not. Brian Murphy pointed this out in his review of "The IRA and its Enemies" in 'The Month', in 1998. Ryan revealed that the names of those shot were on list of “helpful citizens” left behind by British Auxiliaries after they evacuated their quarters in Dunmanway Workhouse. Hart did not have access to these names and made assumptions about the victims of the April 1922 shootings.

In addition, in a critique of Peter Hart's use of sources, ["The Origins and Organisation of British Propaganda in Ireland, 1920", Aubane Historical Society, 2006. ISBN 1903497248] Murphy points out that Hart's subsequent editorship of ‘The Record...’ omitted an entire section, on 'The People'. This section demonstrated British racist attitudes toward the Irish, but also, significantly, did not allege that their enemy was sectarian. Peter Hart failed to inform the reader of this omission, though other less contentious omissions were signalled.

All sides of then divided – by the terms of the Treaty - republican opinion united publicly to denounce the killings, as they broke the terms of an amnesty for former spies and informers.

Ethnic cleansing

Hart's subsequent book, "The IRA at War 1916-23", contains the claim that republican actions during the civil war could be described as ethnic cleansing. However, in a letter to the Irish Times in June 2006 Peter Hart stated that he had never used the term “ethnic cleansing”.

The US historian, John Borgonovo, (author of “Spies, Informers And the 'Anti-Sinn Féin Society': The Intelligence War in Cork City, 1920-1921”, 2007) replied (July 14 2006):

“Dr Peter Hart's letter of June 28th stated: "I have never argued that 'ethnic cleansing' took place in Cork or elsewhere" during the War of Independence. That is not accurate. In his article "The Protestant Experience of Revolution in Southern Ireland" (in "Unionism and Modern Ireland", Gill & MacMillan, 1996), [republished in 2003 in "The IRA at War"] Dr Hart wrote of this period: "Similar campaigns of what might be termed 'ethnic cleansing' were waged in parts of King's and Queen's Counties, South Tipperary, Leitrim, Mayo, Limerick, Westmeath, Louth, and Cork".

"He also compared the Irish Revolution to Bosnia and "the postwar 'unmixing' of people in Europe". Dr Hart's landmark book ‘The IRA and its Enemies’ essentially attributed the shooting of Protestant civilians in Cork to the IRA's "fear of a desire for revenge", rather than the actual guilt of those victims. I disagree.

"My upcoming book "Spies, Informers, and the "Anti-Sinn Féin Society" studies the executions of suspected informers in Cork city during 1920-1921. Of the IRA's 30 civilian killings, five victims were Protestant and 19 were ex-servicemen.

"The latter number should be placed in the context of the city's large ex-soldier population, which included over 5,500 veterans of the First World War. Overall, my research revealed no IRA campaign against the city's Protestant, unionist and ex-servicemen institutions and leaders.

"Among Cork's executed "spies", clear evidence linked some of them to the crown forces, while others were shot without any explanation. Today it is impossible to establish guilt in many cases. British records about informants are fragmented, incomplete, and often unreliable. IRA records were destroyed during the conflict for security reasons. However, surviving documentation indicates the Cork city IRA only targeted civilians it believed were passing information to the crown forces.

"The Cork city Volunteers certainly had the means to identify local citizens working with British forces. Volunteers systematically intercepted mail, tapped phone lines and monitored telegraphs around the city. Republican spies and sympathisers could be found in key workplaces throughout the town. IRA intelligence officers closely watched British bases and personnel. One IRA spy penetrated the British army's Cork command at its highest level, and had access to sensitive information that we must assume included the identities of local civilian informants. Her story can be found in Florence and Josephine O'Donoghue's "War of Independence", which I edited.”

References