Handwritten letter from John J. Hearne to John A. Costello (Dublin)

My dear Taoiseach
This note will not, I fear, reach Dublin before you inaugurate and celebrate the great day. But it will arrive, I hope, in Easter Week in the first days of the new era. It will bring to you all our respectful greetings and good wishes for Eastertide and our heartwhole congratulations on the establishment and the world-wide recognition of the Republic of Ireland. You will know how humbly and proudly all the Easter Masses, Communions and devotions of this family were offered for the peace, prosperity and harmonious development of our beloved country which you have led to, please God, her permanent place in the society of nations. Your achievement will nourish and enrich our national life without measure or end.

[postscript]

Many thanks for your two grand messages. I saw St. Laurent's message to you before they sent it to Johnson¹ on Good Friday. The P.M.² himself is in British Columbia campaigning. I put it to them that a warm message would show that the Canadian Government appreciated that our constitutional policy was not aimed at any B.C. country, and that, later on, Canada's greetings now would be reciprocated by a wealth of goodwill. Have in mind that so nice a telegram as Mr. St. L. sent you was sent within a few months of a general election here in which he may have to meet the charge that his greeting struck a blow at Commonwealth solidarity. You have experience of Imperialist feeling here. The P.M.'s message was courageous in the circumstances - very courageous indeed.