Letter from Kevin R. O’Shiel to Diarmid Coffey, 23 August 1916

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from Kevin R. O’Shiel to Diarmid Coffey, 23 August 1916

1 Hill View Cottage,
Tougher, Ballymore P.O.
Port-na-Blagh
Co. Donegal 23-viii-'16 My Dear Coffey,/ You must excuse me for my seeming
rudeness in not seeing you when you passed through
Omagh the other day & in not writing you until now,
but really you can't know how busy I've been with
the I.N.L. campaign. I should certainly have made
it my business to get you that day you were in Omagh
had you given me any data. When you were not on the
morning train from Derry I concluded that you had not
come. I was in the Herald office until just a quarter
of an hour before you came. I hear you remained
in Omagh until 4oc. Is that so? Why in the
name of Goodness did you not turn up to us?
I am here for a bit of a holiday. We are only about
8 miles from Cloghaneely. Do you know of any 2 stalwarts there that it would be worth my while interviewing?
The people here are all splendidly anti—English &
anti—Partition & this is Dr.O'Donnell's Tetrarchy!
I am pleased to say that the I.N.L. is going along
bonnily. I have already asissted at the establishment
of 5 branches & we have now over 40 on our
books. When are you coming in? For Heaven's sake
leave the rotten old Imperial British Party in Ireland;
it is contaminating even to be a passive supporter
of it. Write a strong letter to the paper denouncing
them & join us. This is a time when no Irishman
can afford to hide his light under a bushel. Did you see that we have several branches already
established in London & other English towns & preparations have
been made to establish branches in the States.
I sent you a copy of the "Fermanagh Herald" the other day giving
account of our great meeting there. I shall send in
some of our papers from time to time. Yours Ever,
Kevin R.O'Shiel

Diarmid Coffey (1888-1964) joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914 and became secretary of the Irish National Volunteers after the organisation split in 1915 (it was the other group who participated in the Rising). He later served as assistant clerk of the Seanad. Kevin Roantree O'Shiel (1891-1970) also joined the Irish Volunteers but left after the split and became increasingly influenced by separatism, joining the Irish National League, then Sinn Féin and later served as a judge for the Dáil Land Commission. In the letter, O'Shiel refers to a missed opportunity to meet with Coffey while both were in Omagh. He refers to the work of the Irish National League and begs Coffey to cut ties with the Irish Parliamentary Party ('the rotten old British imperial party') and join the INL. The INL (originally the Anti-Partition League) was originally founded by northern nationalists to oppose the Irish Parliamentary Party.

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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__1992.html)