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From G. Gavan Duffy Mrs. Dryhurst, Devonshire Hill, Hampstead 6 July 1916
Dear Mrs D. Thanks for letter and enclosures. If I were you, I would not pay the
smallest attention to this kind of rubbish, and
why on earth anyone should try to see the alleged
document, I cannot imagine, as the publishers are
already discredited, and it has nothing to
do with the matter in question. Yrs very sincerely G.G.D.
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Imperial Hotel London W. C. 6 July 1916 Dear Mrs. Dryhurst, Your note of the
4 th has just reached me in which
you ask 'if I could put you in direct touch with any
American journalists who saw the alleged diaries!
The American journalist who mentioned their existence to
me probably by way of friendly warning, said, is
I think I told you, that he and others were told
of their existence, not shown them He added few details ... Believe me. Faithfully yours Mary Boyle O'Reilly (journalist)
Copy of a reply letter from George Gavan Duffy (1882-1951) to Mrs. Dryhurst, 11 Devonshire
Hill, Hampstead. The document contains a further copy of an enclosure that Dryhurst
had originally sent to Gavan Duffy, of a letter from Mary Boyle O’Reilly, a journalist,
to Mrs. Dryhurst. In this letter, O’Reilly states that an American journalist who
was told of the existence of Sir Roger Casement’s (1864–1916) diaries was not actually
shown them. Gavan Duffy, in his reply, tells Mrs Dryhurst to ignore the allegations
presumably alluded to in the enclosure.George Gavan Duffy was an Irish politician,
barrister and judge. He unsuccessfully defended Roger Casement at his trial for high
treason after the Easter Rising. Sir Roger Casement was a humanitarian and Irish Nationalist.
Casement believed that an Irish insurrection would be crushed unless it received substantial
assistance from Germany, and when it became clear that adequate help would not be
forthcoming he travelled to Ireland by submarine. Casement landed and was arrested
at Banna Strand, County Kerry on Good Friday 1916. He was tried in the Old Bailey
for treason and subsequently executed by hanging at Pentonville Prison on 3 August
1916. Casement's so-called 'Black Diaries' contained explicit material about his personal
life and were used to undermine his defence.