Letter from Kate O'Kelly to Hagan

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Pontifical Irish College

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O'Kelly, Kate

Hagan, John, 1873-1930

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Holograph letter from Cait Ó Ceallaigh, Grand Hôtel, Paris (France), to Hagan, with a long '"newsy"' letter. She did not send a shamrock knowing he disapproves of that ambiguous custom. Mentioning new curfew in Dublin for eight o'clock, instead of nine. She saw DeValera before leaving, who is full of plans for developing propaganda- G.D. [Gavan Duffy]'s report seems to have been adopted with a plan to open bureaus everywhere with Paris at the centre; Seán is involved in opening one in Berlin. DeValera is full of good cheer, hoping to [dish] Ll.[oyd] G.[eorge] in the next negotiations: according to him the premier was cornered by them in the Clune affair, had hoped to make Ireland look intransigent while they made England appear absurd in their magnanimous offer of a truce. Then stating some people in Dublin believed Fr. O'Flanagan upset the last truce but they and DeValera agreed fully; the premier would have found fault anyhow. Stating that since the black day of the executions England cannot gain anymore. Dick Mulcahy is quite happy- his boys will fight for 20 years [if they have arms] (hard to decipher); drawing parallel to a German general who continued the fight in Africa. 'We are fortunate generally in so far as they don't get our best soldiers or leaders'; however they have captured 'a big man' in Mullingar, named McKeown, who was sentenced to death even before capture. Then commenting on the escape effected for [Mr.] Teeling, and the narrow shaves which 'Dick' had, including one where he escaped facing a garden full of soldiers; the latter did not search the house which was full of I.R.A. 'matter'. John Chartres will be in Paris in around two weeks, though his wife is not so keen on his return to Ireland– he is 'of course' to be employed by S.(inn) F.(ein). She herself has had 'a rather disagreeable raid in our house by the Auxiliaries one afternoon' but they found nothing to their taste. Her brother [Jem] is in Spike Island, his wife was in prison for a couple of weeks too and another brother Michael is detained in Wexford barracks. The 'Belfast boycott' is now carried out rigorously and they themselves are to have a boycott too, planned by the Dáil and put into practice in the shape of lists of goods to be bought abroad, with a small margin only from England. Devlin and DeValera had conference reg. the Ulster seats - 'we are going to fight the Orangemen and this time presumably it will not be a 3 cornered affair'. The southern Unionists are insolent enough at present, thinking the Black and Tans are winning. Seán has [analysed] Partition Bill showing how futile it is financially, 'because it leaves every- thing in the hands of the Ascendancy after it has left nearly everything in the hands of Ulster. I tell you this as I feel sure nobody Irish ever read the thing...' Adding Easter wishes.