1 1 Wilton Place
Dublin
29 - IV- 16 Dear Choppy, I don't know if you will ever get this but
Bergy Tombe has motored up from Wicklow
to—day & says he'll get some letters posted
on his way home. There's no post in Dublin
& we haven't seen a paper since Monday
except a Daily Sketch which we saw
yesterday. It was going the round of
Dublin and we got "a read of it". It's extremely hard to know where to
begin especially as we know practically
nothing though we hear hundreds of
rumours. We can hear fierce battling
going on constantly. I see fearful
fires down in the city. We can hear machine
— guns, bombs, some kind of bigger gun
and of course incessant rifle-fire. There
are snipers everywhere & it's next to im
-possible to locate them. To begin with we 2
were much cooped up & only allowed out
into the square etc. except that some of
us had to go & see Dina Hensworth twice
a day. She is all by herself in a house in
Pembroke Road just across Baggot
St Bridge & has just perpetrated an infant
& as the fighting was very hot in
that district someone has to call constant-
ly & distract her maid with prattle. As a
matter of fact she is merely pleasureably
excited — in fact, dreadful to relate we
are all enjoying it enormously. There
must be masses of troops in Dublin now
They hold all the bridges this side of
the town now, which the Sinn Feiners
did on Monday & Tuesday of course they had odious
fighting to get them back & the hospitals
are crammed. I believe two trains of
wounded have gone to Belfast & a lot to
England. Of course the S. F.'s tried to cut 3 the railway to the north but I believe they
only half blew up a bridge & there is a single
line still. Of course all this information
is quite unreliable. It's a loathsome job
for the troops as they haven't even decent
maps & of course they can't trust anyone
& have no guides & being English know
nothing, & except at rare intervals they
never see the enemy. It's house to house
fighting & they are sniped from everywhere.
Thank goodness Jane & Ira are getting
so used to it all that they have ceased
to fuss about us & we were allowed
down to Ballsbridge this morning to
see the troops coming in. It's perfectly
safe as we hold the whole road from
Baggot St out to Kingstown now &
the snipers don't want to shoot us in
the least. I can hear them going all round
now. Half the time I don't think they
can be firing at anything in particular.
The police are all cooped up somewhere. They
can't let them out as they aren't armed
& in even in plain clothes, directing the troops 4 would be quite unmistakable & a plain
mark for snipers. There is very likely nothing
going on in Merrion Square now & I hear
they fired on the Red + nurses there
yesterday but on the whole they seem to have
behaved very decently. We We have heard of
several people whose houses they occupied
& they weree quite I didn't even loot
if they were not resisted. There strikes one
as being curiously little popular sympathy
with the movement & it seems Redmond's
lot — the National Volunteers (who he said
were to keep the peace at home!) are lying
very low & are not in with the S. F's at
all. Of course they must be feeling sick
as at any rate this must do for Home Rule.
We were allowed down to Nassau St one
day to pack parcels for the Dublin Fusilier
Prisoners as they depend on the food that is
sent there & it would be dreadful if they
didn't get it. So the were to get a pass
for a motor to take this week's consignment
down to Kingstown & dump it on one of the
returning transports. We strolled down in
great hopes of seeing strange sights & per - 5 haps being shot at but saw very
little except a dead horse in Stephens Green
(where we weren't supposed to go) & a lot of motors
& trams across the road & bullet holes
in the windows, of course this was after
the S F's had evacuated Stephen's Green
which they did on Tuesday night. I don't know
why they were let as they could simply
have been starved out there. However I
believe we were desperately short of troops
& everything else till Wed. One of the great
difficulties is to bury the dead as of course
they can't always get them to the cemeteries.
They are going to use the field at the back
here I think. You should see us foraging
in the morning - Jane , Nelly, Margery, & me
I don't know what will happen if it goes on
much longer & the food begins to give out.
I believe a lot of Sackville St is burnt out
& they we have blown up Jacob's factory & burnt
a lot of S F's in it. I don't know if we have
got the Post GPO back yet but I doubt 6 it. The Sinn Feiners seized that & Stephen's
Green first thing & report says they bagged
some young officers & a parson or so & several
other people & kept them with them so
those poor devils will have to be blown up
with the S. F. 's. We have just heard a
report that the Sinn Feiners are at Slane
which we must keep carefully from Dina.
It's possible I'm afraid as otherwise I
think Lady Connyham would have got to
her somehow. There are supposed to be a big Body of S F 's
marching up from Wexford but Bergy Tombe
says he doesn't believe it as he has seen no
sign of them & anyhow there are troops
lying in wait for them. From the paper yesterday Asquith seems
to be minimizing the affair as much
as he can but it's bound to come out. I 7 hope all's quiet in the country but there
but there are rumours of trouble in the west.
Gen French was away when the
outbreak occurred (1 p.m. on Monday) Of course
the government has been warned over &
over again that this was imminent
They say French had gone over to hand
in his resignation as they wouldn't give
him men. Must stop as this has
got to go. I'm afraid it's a very
garbled account, but my information
is profuse but scanty if you know
what that means. I wish we could
get some war news .Best love. Yours ever M.R.L.

I don't know if they have heard anything
of me at home