Welsh Journals

in his mind an ideal Ireland, an Ireland of simple virtues and family life, of Gaelic culture and homely song and story. Sustaining this image in the harsh twentieth century required all the passion and cunning of which de Valera was capable: the myth became a kind of reality. But it also enabled modern Ireland to emerge, and emerge without too much pain from the ideal world of the revolutionary generation to membership of the European Economic Community. Dudley Edwards might perhaps have devoted more space to this transition in its most critical phase in the 1950s and 1960s, when the Ireland of the ragged-trousered Fianna Fail supporter finally succumbed to the Ireland of the men in the mohair coats. de Valera presided over the destruction of his own Ireland by men in his own Cabinet and Party. For each man kills the thing he loves. Whether this is judged as a successful or tragic end to his long political career must of course remain a matter of opinion. This book combines subtle interpretation with another essential attribute of the political life: readability. At times there is a good deal of the biographer in it; at times even the formidable personality of de Valera succumbs to the equally formidable personality of his biographer. Snatches of poetry, song, conversation are scattered throughout the text. The voice of Owen Dudley Edwards comes across strongly, for he is a writer who speaks on a very personal level to his reader. It is to be hoped that other writers in the series follow his example, even if they cannot emulate his highly personal, not to say idiosyncratic, style. D G BOYCE Swansea THEY SANK THE RED DRAGON. By Bernard Edwards. GPC Books, Cardiff, 1987. Pp. 206. £ 9.95. Despite its 'folksy' title this is a moving account of Welsh merchant ships sunk by enemy action during the second world war. From the declaration of that war the Merchant Navy was in the front line and Welsh ships were among the first to suffer losses; the first was sunk 5 days after war began, the last 3 weeks before the European conclusion, both owned by the Tatem Steam Navigation Company. Most Welsh ships were tramp steamers. Crews, whose living conditions were basic, were mainly drawn from west Wales, traditional home of expert seamen. Since their customary outward cargo was coal, these ships were hard hit by the slump and depression of the 1920s and 1930s, and by 1939 the number of Welsh shipping companies had been reduced from 120 in 1914 to just over 20, operating 164 ships. 123 of these were sunk in World War II, and though large companies, like Reardon Smith, and Evan Thomas and Radcliffe suffered severely, smaller companies were even more seriously affected. Many, like the Tatem Steam Navigation Shipping Company, Constants, the Graig Shipping Company or the tiny Cardigan Shipping Company (two ships only), lost all their vessels. For such small operators there could be no revival.