Sir, - May I compliment you on your recent feature by Kevin Whelan on Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the recent acquisition by the National Library of some 800 family letters. By any standards this is a truly remarkable event. More importantly, the 77 letters written by Lord Edward himself are a wonderfully human revelation of the warm and dynamic nature of the man.
In terms of history, many of us feel he has been very poorly recognised as the founding father of Irish Republican Nationalism. His commitment to this nation, particularly between 1792 and 1798, was selfless and total. The complete destruction, by November of 1983, of his first home in Blackrock where he began married life with Pamela was an act of heedless vandalism of which this nation should be thoroughly ashamed. His lovely letter to his mother, Lady Emily, Duchess of Leinster, written on the morning of May 6th, 1973, after arrival at Frescati House the previous evening, bears ample testimony of his warm regard for Frescati.
The discord and enmity resulting from such a wanton act should now have the soil of the 20th century drawn across it.
It is time for the people of Blackrock to erect their own memorial to Lord Edward, in the centre of our town, the choice being that of the people, the cost being borne by those who now know the error of their ways, and seek not credit for their contributions, we would hope. - Yours, etc., Aidan C. Kelly,
Frascati Park, Blackrock, Co Dublin.