Letter from Leo T. McCauley to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin) with accompanying memorandum by Máire MacEntee
(17/5/10)

1. I have the honour to forward herewith a minute of the 28th September addressed to me by the Secretary of the Legation, Miss MacEntee, applying for an allowance towards the cost of the outfit which she will have to acquire in connection with the forthcoming presentation of credentials. My recollection confirms hers that there was at one time a proposal that officers entering our service should be given an equipment allowance to enable them to acquire the extra and more expensive clothes required by the career and not normally owned by people of their age and income.
2. The situation that has developed here emphasises the reasonableness of the proposed allowance, but whether effect is being given to the general proposal or not I recommend Miss MacEntee’s application for special consideration. She will obviously have to be perfectly dressed for this occasion which is one almost of pageantry and in which she will take a conspicuous part. She will have to pass through the streets of Madrid in a state coach with an escort of Moorish lancers and be presented to the Head of the State in brilliant surroundings in the former Royal Palace. It is clear that the occasion demands a dress and appurtenances not within the means of an officer in receipt of her salary and allowances.
3. Although Miss MacEntee does not make this point it occurs to me that she will be in the position of having to appear before the same eyes and cameras as when she accompanied me at the presentation of my credentials as Minister seventeen months ago and that a completely new outfit of a more formal kind would now be necessary, especially as Spanish protocol makes a sharp distinction between the presentation of credentials by a Minister and an Ambassador.

[enclosure]

I do not know if you remember a proposal - it was under discussion when I first came into the service three years ago - to make an equipment allowance to new cadets. I think the amount was £90. I do not know how the proposal fared subsequently, but the approach of the ceremony of the presentation of your credentials as Ireland's Ambassador to Spain has recalled it to my mind. I find myself obliged to buy new clothes for the occasion of a type and quality I would not ordinarily need or afford, and I should be interested to learn if there would be any possibility of my being granted an allowance, analogous to that then proposed towards their cost.