Letter from Frederick H. Boland to Joseph P. Walshe (Holy See)
(Personal and Confidential)

My dear Ambassador,
I suppose you are still trying to recover from the strain of the President's visit.¹ We will be anxious to hear from you how it went off. It must have been frightful to have him and the National Pilgrimage in Rome at the same time. There are rumours here that the coincidence of the two was a mistake - that each tended to get a bit in the other's light. Anyway, you have the official visits over now and, although the stream of visitors to Rome will probably keep you busy for a few months more, it must be a relief to have the strain of the official visits behind you.

I am sorry there was so much delay about Grillini² but you would want to be here to realise how difficult our relations are with the Department of Finance these days. I cannot remember any time at which they 'stone-walled' us so firmly and consistently as they are doing now. It makes things very difficult indeed because our only recourse is to go to the Cabinet and, with the rise in the level of public expenditure generally, the Cabinet itself is in an astringent mood. Bad as things are as regards the Holy See, they are disastrous as regards Ottawa and Washington. The Department of Finance refused to sanction more than a purely nominal sum to cover the elevation to Ambassadorial status of the missions to Canada and the United States, and a personal letter written by the Minister to the Minister for Finance in the last resort has so far remained without reply. John Hearne's position, in particular, is very serious. It makes things very difficult for us here because we don't seem to be able to get backwards or forwards and, in most cases, we are simply left without any decision at all.

That is what happened about the increased allowances to you suggested by the Taoiseach. On his telegraphic instructions, we went to Finance at once, but, after weeks of delay, we were told that the Minister for Finance himself had raised difficulty about them and proposed to discuss them with the Taoiseach and our Minister. Although I gather there has been some discussion between the Ministers in the meantime, we are still without a definite decision. The trouble about a thing like this, too, is that it tends to get tied up with other things outstanding between ourselves and the Department of Finance, of which the number now is considerable.

I don't know how you fared on the President's visit, but, as things stand now, the best course to bring matters to a decision would be for you to write personally to the Minister indicating the extent of your expenses on the visits of the President and the Taoiseach and the inadequacy of the special monthly Holy Year allowances to cover them. I think a letter from you direct to the Minister would do as much as anything could do at the moment to get the thing settled one way or the other.

His Grace of Dublin told me yesterday evening that the question of finding the money for the Chapel of St. Columbanus in the Crypt of St. Peter's may be regarded as satisfactorily settled. That is good news. He had told me that the idea of finding the money received a very poor reception from the Bishops when the question came up at the meeting of the Standing Committee in January.

We are having a visit here within the next week or so from the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbanus in the United States - Judge Swift of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.³ He is accompanied by the chaplain and one of the other dignitaries of the Order, and they are going on to Rome. I will give them a letter of introduction to you, but, if you cannot manage to see them, don't hesitate to put them off. I will be careful to tell them that there are many calls on your time and I don't know how you are fixed.

As you know, I have been careful not to bother you with requests to arrange Special Audiences during the Holy Year, but I am now going to depart from that in respect of two people whom I am particularly anxious to oblige. One is Paddy Bourke, Director and General Manager of the Provincial Bank of Ireland,⁴ and the other is Dr. Jack Owens, a dentist here in Dublin.⁵ Bourke will be in Rome with his wife between the 25th and 30th May, and Owens will be there, also with his wife, between the 27th May and 3rd June. If you can manage to get them in to Special Audiences, I shall be tremendously obliged. They are very pious Catholics and would value the privilege immensely. I have given them both letters of introduction warning them that you may not be free and that, if you are not, they should get on to Paddy Power.⁶ I shall be very grateful for anything you can do for them.

Michael MacWhite seems to be enjoying his retirement. He was very lucky to buy so nice a place so cheaply.⁷ He is keeping very quiet, but he intends, I think, to take a somewhat more active interest in public affairs after a while. I had one telephone conversation with Seán Murphy since his arrival in Ottawa. He seemed to be quite satisfied with the place on first sight but thought the house rather small. Everyone has told us that it is one of the best houses in Ottawa, but any house in the New World would probably appear small after the Paris Legation. We have heard little from John Hearne, who, as I said, seems to be quite overcome by his financial difficulties. Seán Leydon, who is just back from New York, saw him, however, and said that he seemed to like the post.

I shall be interested to hear from you how the President's visit went off.