Letter from Count Gerald O'Kelly de Gallagh to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(220)

A Chara,

I have the honour to inform you that the St. Patrick's Day celebrations went off with complete success. The usual High Mass was celebrated at the Servite Church and I attended it officially. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was represented by Monsieur Van Eycken, chef de la chancellerie.

In the evening, the St. Patrick's Day banquet was held at the Residence Palace. In the absence of the Prime Minister, detained elsewhere on official business, Monsieur Jules Destrée, one of the presidents, presided. There were 130 guests present.

In the course of the meal, Monsieur Destrée proposed the toast of H.M. King George V. This was honoured to the tune of the 'Soldier's Song'. I responded with the toast of the King of the Belgians, which was accompanied by the Belgian National Anthem. A good deal of interest was shown in the playing of the Irish National Anthem for the honouring of the royal toast and I believe that there will be echoes of it in the weekly press next week-end.

In this connection, I call your attention to the fact that no member of the British Embassy was present. This will form the subject of a separate letter.¹ I had present however, as a guest at the table d'honneur, Mr. Butcher, President of the British Entertainment Committee. The presidency of the British Entertainment Committee is an annual office and confers a sort of headship of the British colony for the year in question. I was very anxious that the British should be represented at the function because, as I have often insisted, any suggestion of friction between the two countries is fatal to the development of my own work here.

I enclose herewith a list of the guests.²

The banquet was a complete success from every point of view. Indeed many people have told me since that it was one of the most agreeable functions of the kind which they ever attended. It was arranged by small tables, so as to allow of more cordiality than could be obtained at one big table. You will see from the accompanying menu³ that the program of music was essentially national. I had distributed shamrock to over 200 people and everybody in the room wore it.

During the course of the dinner, the little harp badges you sent me were sold and the sale realised nearly a thousand francs, for the funds of the Amitiés.⁴

The guests covered all classes and shades of political opinion; and I have no doubt that next year the banquet will be on even a bigger scale.

With each menu there was distributed to the guests a copy of Professor Terlinden's lecture, the issue of which I received the day before. In accordance with your instructions, I am sending you 50 copies thereof.

During the interludes on the official programme, requests were made to the orchestra for dance music and I need not tell you that the dancing floor was soon covered. I knew that there would be a great desire to dance but, for reasons that you will appreciate, I did not have dancing on the official programme.