AN INTENSELY personal letter on official Department of the Taoiseach headed notepaper, signed by the incumbent, Éamon de Valera, is to be sold at auction next Sunday, April 2nd.
The typewritten letter, dated 27th March, 1947 was sent to a Mrs D Collins at Brookville, Santry, Co Dublin to express condolences on the death of her mother.
Mr de Valera recalls that the woman “made tea for us on the evening of the Howth Gun-running” in 1914. He expresses regret that he had not called to see her “to tell her how much I appreciated her kindness on that evening, almost a third of a century ago”.
The Taoiseach explains that to the daughter that he “had often intended to drop in to see her when passing by, but I was usually in a hurry and each time I put it off until the next”.
Auctioneer Drum’s of Malahide has estimated the letter at €500-€1,000. The letter is being sold by heirs to the late Mrs Collins.
De Valera was a member of the Irish Volunteers who smuggled in a shipment of arms to Howth from Germany on board the yacht, The Asgard. The guns were subsequently used in the1916 Rising.
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