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This memoir from one closely involved in the birth of the State is most welcome and timely. It is invaluable for McKenna's insights into some of the well-known figures of the independence struggle and some of the lesser-known ones. She was Arthur Griffith's secretary during the Treaty negotiations, and she typed and copied the Irish Bulletin, the Dáil news-sheet that played such a vital role in combating British propaganda and telling the world what was happening in Ireland. Griffith called her its godmother, and she affectionately and protectively referred to it as her godchild. Her stories of the odyssey around Dublin, moving from place to place, always just ahead of a raid – the paper had 13 hideouts in the course of its existence – is fascinating. The drama of the Treaty negotiations, and the toll they took on Griffith and Collins in particular, are vividly conveyed.
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