1 21 Annesley Park, Rathmines, May 28 1916 My dear Dr. Lynn, I was at Mountjoy last Thursday afternoon &
saw Miss Moloney & from her I learnt that your future
movements are still undecided, but that there is some pro
spect of your leaving Dublin or at any rate your present quarters
before long. As I may not be able to see you, I am going
to write a few lines just to tell you that I have often thought
of you during these troubled times & have felt deep sympathy
with you. I do not want to say anything about recent events, for
tough I am quite able to sympathise with some of the aims of
the leaders in the movement. I cannot believe that they chose
the best means of advancing their cause. But I do not for a
moment doubt the purity & disinterestedness of their motives—
at least those of them whom I know anything of — & I admire
their courage; & I can never forget that they loved Ireland.
As for you , nothing that has happened has altered my
opinion of your character or lessened the admiration I
have always felt for you. Perhaps to be honest, I should
say that I have changed my opinion in one particular; I
always believed you to be a woman of strong common sense,
& I am beginning to doubt that now. But though common
sense is a valuable quality in everyday life & a substitute 2 for nearly all the virtues (at least I notice that the people
who possess it in a high degree get credit for virtues
whether they have then or not), I really think I like you
better since finding that you haven't so much of it as I
once thought. If you have made a mistake (which is not
for me to decide), you will find it out yourself & be all
the better for it: for I believe that the mistakes we make
with honest intentions are often the greatest use to us
afterwards & the people who never make any are not the
wisest. Goodbye & love from
your friend, Maud Joynt