Sir, - May I, through your esteemed columns, urge that any putative refurbishment or development of Vaughan's Hotel, 29 Parnell Square have regard to the ongoing historical significance of that hallowed building.
It was the font of our security forces (Oglaigh na hEireann and the Garda Siochana). Orders issued from that headquarters by the General Staff during the War of Independence had mandatory overriding force. Michael Collins operated from Vaughan's Hotel (The brave Christy Harte, later Head Waiter in the Officers' Mess, McKee Barracks, worked there: he took great personal risks tipping off Collins about British raids).
Vaughan's Hotel is conveniently contiguous to the Garden of Remembrance with which it could be incorporated as a shrine. Happier more harmonious hopes for the future need not obliterate what was valiant in the darker past now, please God, behind us all in the British Isles, Europe, The World. - Yours, etc.,J.P. Lt.-Col. (retd.),
Cedarmount Road,
Mount Merrion.