Madam, - Patsy McGarry repeats the stale anecdote about the Duke of Wellington (The Irish Times, October 10th), saying he "famously" disavowed his Irishness with the line about the horse and being born in a stable.
I asked Elizabeth Longford, the biographer of Wellington, about this in an interview some years before her death. She said there was no evidence the Duke ever said any such thing, and that in fact it went against feelings he expressed about Ireland on other occasions. She told me it was more likely the remark was made up by a St James's wag and repeated around London.
Since Wellington's real family name was Colley - the Wellesley name was a bit of social climbing - it is hardly likely the Duke could get away with pretending not to be Irish. - Yours, etc,
MARY ELLEN SYNON, Dublin 4.