Letter from Robert Brennan to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(Confidential)

Dear Joe,
I wish to thank you for your letter of June 11th which Denis brought me today.¹ I will see what I can do about G.[ray] in the next few weeks. Meanwhile I wish to report as follows.

The person mentioned in your cablegram 264 of September 20, 1944,² whom I shall call M.[arlin], showed me a letter he had had from G. in which the latter said that even the recent pronouncements by the Pope which showed how wrong An Taoiseach had been on the moral issues had had no effect on An Taoiseach. The latter had kept the people in ignorance of those issues for five years and had never acknowledged how his country had been dependent on the Allies for supplies. Churchill had very foolishly given him (An Taoiseach) an opportunity of making a reply which had gained for him great support in Ireland but An Taoiseach's action in calling on the German Minister to express condolence had evoked outside Ireland a unanimous and just condemnation. He, G., was fed up with the whole situation and did not think he would stay after next Spring. He said that there was evidence that certain groups of nationalists were preparing to project the partition issue on the American scene but judging by the clippings received, the American press was now so hostile to de Valera that these people were 'no longer in a position to do us any harm'.

The above is my recollection of the contents after reading the letter once. M. is very indignant about the tone and the contents of this letter and he says G. is writing similar letters to other people here. He, M., is countering such views when he meets them. Whatever your view of him he is doing good work in this respect. He plans to see various leaders including Feardilish, if possible.³

He, M., told me that in the beginning of 1942 Reynolds⁴ who was at that time in Dublin wrote a report embodying the recommendation that Ireland should be occupied. This report was sent to Theebawn⁵ by G. apparently without comment. Thence it went to the Army Chiefs and finally to the Northern Command Commander who was indignant and said 'what the hell is going on here?'. Some of Seán Buidhe's⁶ men who heard of the report said 'the baby who wrote that should have his head examined. He does not know how many thousands of men it would take to even make faces at these guys'. M. at that time was sent south to make a survey of the ground so that they would be prepared to go south in case of a German attempt to invade. He saw An Coistealbheach⁷ who gave him every cooperation after he, M., had told him that his people had no intention of invading. The following is from another source:

In January 1944 G. sent a report here on the butter situation in Ireland and said that instead of improving, as the Government stated, it would grow steadily worse. He added hopefully that it might be only a matter of time until economic conditions would turn the people against the Administration.

I would dearly like to go home this year for a visit and if you would be good enough to invite me for consultation I should be delighted.⁸