No Acquittal

To the Editors:

In his interesting survey of Michael Collins and modern Ireland [NYR, March 21], Noel Annan was kind enough to make a passing reference or two to my biography of Roger Casement. The myth, he believes, has cast its spell over me, as I “seem to suggest that Casement could somehow have been acquitted.” Shaw’s myth must have cast its spell over Annan: the point I was making was that there was never the remotest chance of an acquittal.

Brian Inglis

London