Sir, Regarding the unveiling of the long overdue memorial to those who lost their lives in the Leinster disaster in 1918, a sincere thanks should be extended to, the many people and the authorities in Dun Laoghaire who organised this project. Special mention should be made of the four local divers who worked so hard on the wreck over the years and who recovered the anchor of the vessel.
In "An Irishman's Diary" (January 31st), Kevin Myers' comments that "the names of the subscribers to the Leinster fund are overwhelmingly Protestant". My research indicates that some £3,736 was subscribed by the staff in the many Post Offices in Ireland and Great Britain; a considerable sum of money as many of the staff were on low pay. A further £5,760 was allocated to the Post Office disaster fund, from the Dublin Mansion House Disaster Fund, organised by the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Surely the subscribers to these funds were not overwhelmingly Protestant?
The Post Office committee handling the disbursement of the funds included the following: W. Killeen, Chairman; J. McManus, Secretary; J. Power, Treasurer; and included E. Maher; L. Kennedy; J. Kenny and J. Hanrahan, all very Irish names and to my mind, not altogether Protestant. Isn't it time that this nonsense of Protestant versus Catholic be dropped and simply the name of Irishman substituted, as Wolfe Tone advocated. - Yours, etc.,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.