DAVID FITZPATRICK,
Sir, - The nationality of Constance de Markievicz's husband (August 3rd) was a matter of some uncertainty even for "the Countess". In November 1921, hoping to send her to a rally in Chicago, the Department of Foreign Affairs requested details of the marriage in order to get her a Polish passport. Her response was vague.
According to a file in the National Archives, she told an official: "I was married in Marylebone Parish Church and Registry Office either in 1900 (the year of the Great Exhibition in Paris) or the year previously in the late summer. . .I also informed him that my husband might possibly be technically a Ukrainian, as his father had a big estate there, also a house in Kieff . . .He ranked as a Russian in pre-war days and was a patriotic Pole".
His title, if any, may therefore have been legitimately Russian. The countess never reached Chicago. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID FITZPATRICK,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.