Letter from Mabel FitzGerald to the Governor, Mountjoy Prison, 2 June 1916.

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from Mabel FitzGerald to the Governor, Mountjoy Prison, 2 June 1916.

1 2 Loretto Villas, Bray 2nd June,1916 The Governor, Mountjoy Prison, Dublin Sir, I find that my husband Mr Desmond Fitzgerald, left Mount
joy Prison, on Friday last so that he could not have received my 1
letter before his departure. I had been told at the Prison that he
would be able to write me and to receive one letter within the
first week. I waited to write him till I should have had his letter
which came on Friday morning: I posted my reply on Friday after
noon. I have just heard from him again from Dartmoor : it
appears they are permitted to write once and receive a letter
after arrival there. I think it very likely that my letter to my husband
was forwarded on from Mountjoy in which case he fears that it
may count as the letter he has the right to receive in Dartmoor.
I shall be very much obliged if you will write the Governor of Dart
moor explaining matters so that he may be given the letter which
I am now writing him to Dartmoor. As the he will not have another
letter for four months I am anxious that he should not lose this
one through a mistake. I am, Yours truly

This letter is from Mabel FitzGerald (née Washington McConnell) (1884-1958), wife of politician and intellectual Desmond FitzGerald (1888-1947), to A.T. Munro (1869-1952), the governor of Mountjoy prison. Mabel had written a letter to her husband in Mountjoy but he was transferred to Dartmoor before it arrived. She is concerned that the letter, when forwarded from Mountjoy to Dartmoor, will be counted as her husband's allowance of one letter on arrival in Dartmoor. She asks the governor to intervene as she fears that, under the rules, she will have to wait four months for further communication.Mabel Fitzgerald was the wife of Irish Volunteer Desmond Fitzgerald. Mabel was a former governess in London. She later vigorously canvassed her former acquaintances in London's liberal circles for support for Francis Sheehy Skeffington during his hunger strike in 1915. Both Mabel and Desmond would serve in the GPO garrison during Easter Week. Charles Arthur Munro (1869-1952) was the governor of Mountjoy prison in Dublin. He is also the brother of the noted author H.H. Munro, better known through his literary pseudonym, Saki.

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How to cite

Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__1476.html)