Letter from Robert Barton, Annamoe, Co. Wicklow, to Liam Price regarding Eamon De Valera and the Treaty negotiations,
[no year] December 16.
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| Summary: | Writes: "Many thanks for [?]. It makes us sad to think of all the beautiful places we did not see when in Greece. So glad that you will bring the Leasks down later on. Rachel will fix a date when we have recovered from Christmas visitors and festivities. As to Colm O'M's cabinet minutes, these were quoted during the Treaty debates & I think they are recited in 'Peace By Ordeal' (Page 257 there is a ref.). Page 145-6 of Taylor is wildly inaccurate. De Valere in deciding not to go to London & in not being involved personally in the negotiations strove to ensure that if negotiations broke down he should be in a position to reopen them. I do not believe that it is in the man's temperment to shirk an obligation, he did not & does not lack moral courage. P.S. O'Hegarty's statement on p. 146 I believe to be also inaccurate. De Valera explained what he meant by External Assoc. to the cabinet soon after I returned from Gaol, probably in July or Aug. Griffith could not have stated at a much later date 'the first I ever heard of it' ... De Valera never sought to bemuse me with anything so difficult to translate into a Treaty document. To the Cabinet the illustration he used was the relationship between a barnacle & the ship to which it attaches itself. Defence & Security [?] interference with internal affairs & option to let go as desired. Of course it's possible that De Valera did do this diagrammatic business for G. and also the Barnacle illustration for us. At any rate O'Hegarty has got his dates wrong in my opinion. I am fairly confident that we were broken in to the meaning of [?] Assoc. long before the delegates were actually selected. It will be tragic if De Valera never writes his own memoirs. Bob". |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
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| Notes: | Manuscript. With envelope with the instructions: "Letter from Robert Barton to Liam Price. Not to be opened till after Robert Barton's death. R.J. Stopford. 7.III.1967". Robert Childers Barton died in 1975. Related Materials: Stopford Price Papers (MS 15,340-15,346)are held in the Department of Manuscripts. Physical description: 1 item (5 pages). more |
| Arrangement: | Fonds. |
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MS 49,617 |
Manuscripts Reading Room |
Manuscripts |
Reproduction rights owned by the National Library of Ireland.
