Sir, – Dermot Curran in An Irishman's Diary (September 30th) attributed the phrase "Peace in our time" to Neville Chamberlain.
Chamberlain never said this. The correct quote is, “Peace for our time”. This quote came from a speech Chamberlain delivered outside 10 Downing Street on September 30th, 1938: “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British prime minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.”
The commonly misquoted “Peace in our time” most likely stems from the Book of Common Prayer (“Give peace in our time, O Lord”), the contents of which the Unitarian Mr Chamberlain would not have been overtly familiar with. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK CORKERY,
James Street,
Cork.