If the excerpt from Dave Hannigan's new book Terence MacSwiney: The Hunger Strike That Rocked an Empire (News, 7 November) is anything to go by, it should be a good read.

Its publication coincided with Cork City Council's commemoration of the lives of both Tomas MacCurtain and MacSwiney in a four-day exhibition in City Hall recently. Cork has always been strong on preserving both its local social history and also that of tulmultuous historical events like that of the war of independence and the civil war. The generation that lived through these conflicts for years stayed silent on those times, so that hurt could heal and parishes and communities could work and live together.

It has really only been in the last 15 years that books like that of Dave's could have been written. Enough time has passed and it is important that we don't forget.

Mary Sullivan

College Road, Co Cork