Sir, – I very much enjoyed Prof John Horgan's succinct piece "United Ireland: de Valera's secret plan for a united Ireland" (Weekend Review, August 31st).
However, Prof Horgan is incorrect regarding his assumption that de Valera’s “secret” proposal regarding a united Ireland and the Commonwealth is not “recorded in any official Irish government archives”. The National Archives of Ireland houses a file related to this very subject (NAI DFA 203/2). Indeed, contained with the personal papers of de Valera and Frank Aiken, held by the UCD Archives, are several references to the above topic (UCDA P150/2940 & P104/8046); although I appreciate that they are not “government archives”. – Yours, etc,
Dr STEPHEN KELLY,
Head of History and Politics,
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Senior Lecturer
in Modern History,
History and Politics,
Liverpool Hope
University,
Hope Park,
Liverpool.