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9th December, 1915 Dear Sir, Midland Peat Industries Committee. This Committee at it's meeting on the 15th November
co-opted the following gentlemen, subject to their consenting
to act, which each of them has since done :- Messrs H.M.
Tuite J.P ; James King J.P. ; Hugh O'Neill J.P. ; Charles E.
Levinge J.P. ; Christopher Lennon D.C. ; and Dominick
Nugent. It was decided to hold a meeting of the enlarged
Committee in the Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar,
on Monday, 3rd January, 1916, at one o'clock for the
transaction of business of the utmost importance; and
I was asked to express the hope of the Committee that
you will be able to attend on that occasion. Yours faithfully L. Ginnell.
The author of this letter, Laurence Ginnell (1852-1923) was a land agitator, lawyer,
and politician, serving as an Irish Parliamentary Party MP from 1906. Politically
isolated on account of his position at the extreme wing of Irish agrarian agitation,
Ginnell was charged on multiple occasions with incitement to cattle-driving. After
the executions of the Easter Rising leaders, Ginnell accused the British government
of murder. In 1918 he became the only IPP MP to leave the party for Sinn Féin.
In this letter, Ginnell is writing in connection to his work with the Midland Peat
Industrial Committee. He writes that the committee has taken on several new members
and that the newly enlarged committee will meet on 3 January 1916 at the Greville
Arms Hotel, Mullingar, to transact "business of the utmost importance". He invites
his correspondent to attend.