Sir, - An interesting article on Ledwidge and Kettle by Rosita Boland (The Irish Times, November 12th) mentions the Kettle memorial portrait-bust in St Stephen's Green, but it is doubtful if it can be called "official".
The epilogue (Chapter 17) to my biography of Kettle (The Enigma of Tom Kettle, Glendale Press, 1983) describes how "The TM Kettle Memorial Committee" was formed by a group of Kettle's friends, who met in the Gresham Hotel in 1916. Albert Power was chosen as sculptor. The bust was not ready until March 1921 and a series of events, including objections from the Commissioners of Public Works, delayed until 1937 its placement (without an unveiling ceremony) in its present position. The unexpended balance of the subscription fund was given to Mrs Kettle to defray in part the cost of publishing an Irishman's Calendar and a new edition of The Day's Burden.
Nor is it quite correct to say Kettle was "sent" to France. Occupied in a safe billet as a recruiting agent, he applied to the commanding officer at the Curragh for a posting to France on active service. The Welsh Guards buried his remains at Ginchy.
If an official memorial for Kettle is deemed appropriate, it could take the form of a plaque on his former residence, 23 Northumberland Road, where it would balance a plaque on the adjoining house, where Michael Malone was killed during the Easter Rising. - Yours, etc., J. B. Lyons,
Marine Terrace, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.