1 9 Dunville Avenue
Rathmines
Dublin 3rd May, 1916 My dear Mrs Skeffington I have been for some
time dumbly anxious to let you have a
word from me to tell you, however
inadequately, what we have been
feeling about Frank's death, — his
heroic death, — and about his life too,
for his life and death were of the same
pattern. For a number of days we,
in common with many others, were in a
state of horrible uncertainty about him,
— afraid of every rumour, hating to 2 credit the wickedness which made it
possible to murder wantonly such a
life as his, and yet forced to a slow
and reluctant conviction of the dreadful
reality. One thing that made it
credible was the agreement of what we
were told of his last moments with the
unflinching character and devotion to
principle which we knew so well;
another was the conspiracy of official
silence regarding his fate which revealed
so truly the nature of the hostile element
which dared to kill him in violation
not only of constitutional right and
of the law of humanity, but wen of
the laws of war, — but did not dare to 3 avow publicly the murder. He has
been killed for his principles, — killed
because he was an outspoken and
fearless opponent of every tyranny
and lying pretence; because also he
was in the truest sense an uncomprom—
ising Nationalist; but more than all
I believe, because he dared to stand
for peace and for the international
friendship of peoples. The last has been,
doubtless, his crowning offence against
the ruling powers. He will live not
only as one of the national martyrs
of Ireland, but as a martyr of
international humanity, as a martyr 4 in the cause of oppressed womanhood and
of the trampled multitudes of every
clime and age. I cannot think of him as dead: it
seems altogether unreal. He was the
very embodiment of life in its best
and highest quality. Utterly brave, he
had yet no trace of bitterness or
arrogance or contemptuousness. Utterly
uncompromising in his demands upon
himself, he was yet tolerant of others'
weaknesses and kindly and unruffled
wen in the most critical of moments.
To me he has been for years an ideal
figure. It is truer for me to say that
of him than any other whom I have 5 9 Dunville Avenue
Rathmines
Dublin known personally. I have wondered at
him, looked up to him, and loved him.
Now I feel not unlike a disciple whose
master has been taken away, for there
was no one else like him and for me
there is a gap left which can never
be filled. There was a spiritual
keenness and moral tonic about him,
a strength and inspiration, and a
courage and selflessness which was all
his own. His intellect and energy were
a marvel to me, but even they were not
what made his deeper influence. 6 I cannot think of him as dead,
and I do not believe that he is
dead. A spirit like his is quenchless.
Bullets cannot end or destroy it. The
world of aspiration and thought, of
energy of mind and heart, in which
he dwelt must have a reality and
permanent quality superior to that of
the leaves which fall and perish.
Like him, I turn aside from
religious orthodoxies of every brand,
but nothing can annihilate my
faith: somehow, in the immortal
nature of life and especially of its
nobler forms of consciousness. His death and the manner of it may 7 work as a potent influence to do more
for the causes which he had at heart
than years of plodding work would
have accomplished. I pray and
believe that it will be so. Ireland and
the world, if they are in one sense
the poorer for his loss, in another way
will be compensatingly enriched by
the nobility of the life so barbarously
cut off. Tyranny, in his case, will
have overreached itself. As I write
these words, I feel the uselessness
of words to appease the source of
personal bereavement. I am haunted
by it: what it must be to you and
to Owen I can only guess. We must 8 mourn, Dublin must mourn, his loss
as well as that of many another of
her bravest and best; — and yet I
know that Frank himself would wish
us to have done with sorrow as soon
as might be. With deepest sympathy from Eve
and myself. Ever your sincere friend,
Maurice Wilkins