Sir, - With reference to Gregory Allen's letter (February 4th), I was delighted to read of Athelstone Wolseley's remarks about accusations made against my half-great-uncle, Sir Arthur Vicars, after the loss of the Irish Crown Jewels in 1907.
As regards the fate of the jewels, H. Montgomery Hyde, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph of November 2nd, 1983, stated: "As for the theory that the Irish Government bought the jewels for a few thousand pounds in 1927, I was personally assured by the late Desmond FitzGerald, who was Minister of External Affairs at that date, and was father of the present prime minister of the Republic of Ireland, that a Parisian jeweller offered to sell the regalia to the Irish Government and that the offer was refused on the grounds that the Government had no interest in these relics of British imperial rule."
Let's hope this may stop innuendoes against my great-uncle, and also doubts about the fate of the Crown Jewels. - Yours, etc., Pamela O'Mahony,
The Cottage, Ballitore, Co Kildare.