Letter from 'Sean Ghall' to Hagan

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View/Open: HAG1-1923-259.pdf (87.MB) Bookview

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DigitalGeorgetown

Pontifical Irish College

Contributor

Ghall, Sean

Hagan, John, 1873-1930

Description

Holograph letter from 'Seán Ghall' [...], 14 Philipsborough Avenue, Fairview, Dublin (on Dublin Castle letterhead), to Hagan. Responding to scholarly queries; many of his private papers were destroyed in [Goole], some by a German zeppelin bomb. He was appointed librarian to the Dáil and finding premises will be a problem. Deploring the destruction of the Four Courts record office and much other cultural property through '"idealism"'; praising integrity of the leaders of the old I.R.B. and particularly Arthur Griffith who was 'the greatest enemy to British domination...that is what the Castle officials thought'. Those against the treaty 'became rebels only when the British soldiers were moving eastwards'; Fr. Flanagan is the only consistent republican. Commenting on Hagan's note on Wolfe (Tone); Fr. [Pollen] is to publish on this. He has been impressing on the government the necessity of a historical manuscripts commission; support comes, among others, from Eoin MacNéill; a translation of the Gaelic historical poems is most needed. Irish archivists ought to visit European record offices; English scholars inform him that where purely Irish manuscripts exist, they are ignored. Then observing that he feels the same indifference to the English king as several historic figures, including Hugh (O'Neill); sure that the treaty 'is the surest road to absolute separation'.