No. 183 NAI DFA Holy See Embassy 20/102

Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Seán Nunan (Dublin)

Holy See, 16 March 1953

Many thanks for your letter of March 10,¹ enclosing Moscow Irish Programme of February 26, and for your note on Father Clarence Duffy,² which explains a lot.

I suppose the official attitude towards the Broadcasts is to ignore them beyond taking note of the factual elements. Except as an aspect of the Russian ambition to conquer the World, dangerous enough in all conscience, and as a means of conveying code instructions, the broadcasts seem devoid of precise aims.

¹ Not printed.

² Father Clarence E. Duffy (1898-1976), an American-born Catholic priest who was educated and spent his youth in Ireland. Following a period engaged in missionary work he suffered a mental breakdown and moved to America whereupon he became engaged in 'peace propaganda' and fell foul of the Catholic hierarchy. In the attached note Duffy is referred to as 'a "peace fanatic" but not a Communist', having limited links with Irish, British, Canadian and American Communists.

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