Madam, - I have learned of the death of Dick Walsh with great sadness.
I first met Dick when he and I were working together on a group of South London newspapers in the late 1950s. He was a delightful colleague - gentle and unfailingly courteous - a great drinking and talking companion, and a political militant with genuine ideals.
During those years - perhaps the worst in Ireland's long post-war emigration crisis - Dick and I worked with emigré groups of Irish workers seeking (without success) support from successive Dublin governments for their political and social rights (including that to vote in Dáil elections).
Dick co-edited the (short-lived) bulletin of the Irish Workers' Union which enjoyed some circulation particularly among the large Irish building and construction workers' communities at that time. Dick particularly enjoyed the company of the many Irish-speaking "navvies" who had their own mainly Irish-speaking pubs in north and west London in those years.
This may have inspired some of Dick's earliest fiction writing in the Irish language. I, like others, greatly enjoyed evenings in his London home with his wife Ruth. It was a fascinating place to meet other Irish writers. These included Edna O'Brien who, like Dick, was obviously marked by the rich cultural background of Co Clare.
In later years, as journalists pursuing our careers on national newspapers, we had less contact with Dick but I always followed his political commentaries with close interest.
I do hope some way can be found of commemorating his great contribution to Irish journalism. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN PALMER, Brussels, Belgium.
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Madam, - Nearly 40 years of politics would have been worth it if only because of the chance to get to know Dick - and to be entertained, educated and inspired by him. - Yours, etc.,
MAURICE O'CONNELL, Forge Park, Tralee, Co Kerry.