1 Irish College Rome 12 May 1916 My Lord Bishop I enclose a receipt. I
suppose the Censor is at work
again. If he opens this letter he
will have an opportunity of
revising his Latin — if he ever
knew any. The Government Executive
seems to be as foolish as the
insurgents. Mr Skeffington never 2 had any sense. But he should
have had a trial; to shoot
him without one was
lawless and stupid. It will
probably be sought now to impress
on the public conviction that
all were executed without trial.
If the (executive) showed living under
their natural provocation the
the insurgents who are now likely to
become immortal heroes could
probably have lived in the
public memory of Ireland as
impulsive thoughtless youths the the scorn of wisdom there is
not a pin to choose between
the executive and the insurgents. We are still in the dark
here as to what directly led up
to the trouble. I take no notice
of what politicians & journalists
say on any side since the war
began. They have made lying an
art and a virtue — it is a
moral duty to lie if it pays
It is a literal truth that I have
not read one sentence about the
battle of Verdun and I seem to
know as much about it as those 3 who study it with maps — more
because I am aware of my
ignorance. I have heard that some persons
here have sent a telegram to Mr Redmond
on the trouble in Dublin as from
'the Irish in Rome'. I know nothing of it
and the Augustinians & Franciscans know
nothing of it. I am told that the
sender of it (who the were I
cannot say) was born in Scotland. So
we have a Foaley St in Rome as in
London and there are traitors in it
too. It is a foolish thing for nearly
all the Irish in Rome are students or
nuns. I am My Lord
yours obediently
M O'Riordan P S As I have these remarks on the troubles in Dublin I have
not put 'a priest sends sermon' on the envelope