1
MR. DEVLIN AND THE VOLUNTEERS HOUSE OF COMMONS. 7th July, 1916. My dear Mr. Rooney, I have your letter of
the 17th inst., with
enclosures handed to me by Mr. Redmond, which I return herewith.
I would respectfully suggest that the Westley Richards' people
should be distinctly told that we do not want any arms in
Ireland, and we will not have them. As law-abiding citizens,
we consider them a danger to the State. Instead of getting
arms into the country, we want to get them out of the country.
When this is done, we will see what further action should be
taken. Yours very truly, JOSEPH DEVLIN.
This is a copy of a letter sent by Joseph Devlin MP (1871-1934) to a Mr Rooney. Devlin
was a key organiser for the Irish Parliamentary Party, an influential constitutional
nationalist and had been an MP since 1902. In the aftermath of the Easter Rising,
Devlin supported the temporary partition of Ireland but the scheme collapsed. In the
letter, written around this time, Devlin writes that 'we do not want any arms in Ireland,
and will not have any' and that they are trying to remove arms from Ireland rather
than bring them in.