Confidential report from Thomas J. Kiernan to Seán Murphy (Dublin)

The Royal Ulster Rifles invited me to dinner at Wuppertal, where they are stationed as part of the British NATO contribution to European ground defence.

They prefaced their invitation by making telephone enquiries regarding my official description and as to whether they could borrow a score of ‘The Soldier’s Song.’

I accepted the invitation from the Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Col. E.D.D. Wilson and the Officers of the 1st Bn. The Royal Ulster Rifles; and the score of the National Anthem was lent.

The only toasts at the dinner were, in order, The President of the Republic of Ireland, which was drunk standing, and the Queen, which was drunk sitting. After dinner, Irish airs were played by the Battalion Band and by pipers; and at the end of the music, the company stood to attention for The Soldier’s Song (which had also been played at dinner for the toast of the President), and this was followed by the British Anthem during which the company stood at ease and chatted. It is, I was told, a tradition of the Battalion to sit, or stand at ease, during the playing of the British National Anthem.

The Commanding Officer is from Tipperary. The three next senior officers are natives of Dublin: Major Christopher Nixon (father Sir Christopher Nixon, mother Clery of a family which established a drapery store in Dublin later purchased by a man named Guiney); Major Gore, a cousin of the late Countess Markievitz; and Major Weldon, a Trinity College graduate.

The Battalion had been visited by Lord Brookeborough last St. Patrick’s Day, to receive shamrock from him.

Their general attitude to me was of unfeigned friendliness. Solos on the large philharmonic harp were played – ‘Sean O Duibhir an Ghleanna’, ‘The Pretty Girl Milking her Cow’ etc; and the favourite battalion march tune is ‘God Save Ireland’. The motto of the battalion is ‘Quis Separabit’. About 30% of the battalion consists of volunteer recruits from the twenty-six counties; and a big proportion of the remainder are national-service conscripts.

The senior officers asked me if it would be possible to have it known to the President that his toast had been given musical honours. They referred to him, as the night wore on, as Seán T.