Abraham Lincoln, the ‘specious humbug’

This post by M.E. Synon is the first in a series about Stephen Spielberg’s Lincoln. A counter-argument will be published tomorrow, followed by a comparison of screen and literary adaptations of the last months of Abraham Lincoln’s life.

Last week in Dublin there was the European premiere of Spielberg’s film on Lincoln. Why Dublin? Because the star Daniel Day-Lewis lives in Ireland and he wanted the premiere as a fundraiser for an Irish charity. All of which meant I’ve been writing on Lincoln for the Irish press, trying – and I know it’s fruitless, but still I go on – trying again to explain to the Irish that Lincoln was a racist, a corporate crony of Northern industrial interests, and an imperialist war-monger, and they ought to stop the hero worship.

They never listen, of course. Somebody once told them that a lot of Irish fought for the Union, so they think that must have been the Right Side.