No. 216 NAI DFA/5/305/273

Extract from a letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Seán Nunan (Dublin)
(Secret)

Holy See, 27 July 1953

[matter omitted]

The temperature of over 90% in my office has made me write you a rather wandering report. I am afraid I shall never get into the straight jacket which the boys in the Department are now inventing for our reports. I wonder if it does not rather take from spontaneity to have too many rules! The Nicholas Nolan1 complex was the worst thing that ever happened in the Department, and I hope you are not going to allow it to steal back again.

1 Nolan, who had served in External Affairs from 1939 to 1947, including a period with Walshe in Rome, was now at the Department of the Taoiseach. He was known for his pedantry and his capacity to invent rules and regulations. This reputedly earned him the nicknames of 'meticulous Nicholas' or 'ridiculous Nicholas'.



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