Talk:James McParland

Jenkins commentary
Concerning the bit about Sherlock Holmes:

Philip Jenkins, Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University comments that, ...by common consent [The Valley of Fear is] the worst of the Sherlock Holmes novels...[12]

As this stands it creates a very NPOV impression VoF is a bad SH novel. I would add that the professor curiously fails to provide any sources for his claim - "by common consent" would hardly pass as a source here at Wikipedia. I feel such a claim should not remain uncommented, or Jenkins clear anti-Pinkerton sentiments (which you need to read the whole article to understand) will have been sneaked into the Wiki article.

Adding a npov tag until this is cleared up. 85.227.226.149 08:13, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Religious bias

 * Franklin B. Gowen, the President of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad ... [was] a Protestant


 * Pinkerton assigned McParland to the job. Although James McParland was an Irish Catholic like those he would be investigating, he and his brothers had been the only Catholic boys at a Protestant school in the parish of Mullaghbrack, County Armagh, Ireland ... Parts of County Armagh, along with County Antrim and parts of County Down, had the highest living standard in Ireland. Conversely, North Leinster, south and west Ulster, and north and east Connacht, from which most of the Molly Maguires emigrated, were the most impoverished parts of Ireland.


 * a) Why is Gowen's religion important or germane to the article or the events?
 * b) Why is McParland's schooling (while, if true, interesting) germane or important to the article or the events?
 * c) Why the breakdown alleging discrepancies in living standards between counties; is it germane to McParland's article?
 * ANSWER: They are not. This is religious bias, cruft, synthesis and apologetics, and tweaked or rv accordingly. Quis separabit?  18:51, 27 December 2011 (UTC)