The Presidents' Letters
In her new book, journalist Flor MacCarthy offers a fascinating glimpse into the many written exchanges over the decades between our presidents and some famous and not so famous letter writers. Here she explains more about the book and some of her favourite letters.
Flor MacCarthy
People love letters, receiving them, reading them, replying to them (ok, not always the last one).
And the art of letter writing is appreciated in every culture, but is it also a dying art, as instant, electronic communication has become the norm? We write far fewer letters than our parents and grandparents did. And that holds true right across society, from schoolchildren, to business owners, to the President of Ireland. Curious about the letters to and from Áras an Uachtaráin over the years, I wanted to find out who has been writing to our presidents, where are these letters now, and what do they reveal, about us and about how Ireland has changed since our first president sat down to open his morning post in June, 1938.
I went in search of a book, none existed. I searched online, but found nothing. With a little time on my hands in the summer of 2018 I wandered into the National Library of Ireland in Dublin and so my letter hunting began. This book is the result: with 350+ letters, telegrams, postcards, memos, drawings and photographs. of the correspondence from the files of all nine of our presidents. Over more than two years of joyful discovery, I read thousands of letters, in a dozen different libraries and archives, and was especially lucky to be given access to the Mary Robinson Archive which is still being catalogued in the James Hardiman Library of NUI Galway.
The earliest correspondence in the book is the invitation to Douglas Hyde to become the first Uachtaráin na hÉireann.
The most recent is the birthday message to Bob Dylan from President Michael D. Higgins in May 2021, as they both marked their 80th birthdays; “as one 80 year old to another, as one poet to another”, the president wrote. And in between is a who’s who of the 20th century and beyond, with letters from John F Kennedy, Princess Grace of Monaco, the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Maud Gonne, Nelson Mandela, Muammar Gaddafi , Queen Elizabeth II and Seamus Heaney.
But of equal importance to me are the letters sent by the citizens of Ireland to their president.
Letters of love and of loss. Heart-breaking letters, poignant ones, and some so hilarious that I nearly got kicked out of the library for laughing so loud. What became clear to me very quickly was that people have written to the president over the years about everything under the sun; to mark a big occasion or to ask a small favour.
THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOURITES:
Chicken with peas or ‘Beef Bourguignon’
Sometimes while doing my research I’d come across wonderful material other than letters.
Often, the old files might contain drawings, maps or newspaper clippings for example, and some of these I’ve included in the book to bring the letters and their stories to life. These two menus I found were among the papers of Éamon de Valera in UCD Archives and Erskine H. Childers in the National Archives of Ireland.
Menus can reveal more than we think about a particular event or occasion, and though only fourteen years apart, these two menus for the inaugural celebrations of President de Valera in 1959 and President Childers in 1973 could not be more different. Sicín (chicken), with píse (peas), cabáiste (cabbage), and prátaí (potatoes) for de Valera’s dinner, whereas guests were offered ‘Creamed Vichyssoise’ and ‘Coquilles St. Jacques’ for Childers’ luncheon.
Happy 100th Birthday!
Ireland is one of the few countries in the world that offers a monetary award to citizens on their 100th birthday. In the UK they receive a letter from Queen Elizabeth II; in Sweden it’s a telegram; and Japanese centenarians receive a silver cup and a certificate from their prime minister. All those aged 100 who live on the island of Ireland, and all Irish citizens worldwide can receive a birthday message from the President of Ireland, along with a cheque for €2540.
The newspaper clipping here tells the story of Ireland’s first ever ‘Centenarian Bounty’ which was presented to Mrs Anne Delaney of 44 Patrick St, Dublin, in 1940. So rare was it to reach the age of one hundred, she was the only recipient that year.
PRINCESS CAROLINE’S IRISH PONY
Princess Grace of Monaco and her husband Prince Rainier made several visits to Ireland in the early 1960’s and on each occasion they visited President Éamon de Valera and his wife Sinéad at Áras an Uachtaráin. In fact, their visit here in 1961 was the first ever visit to Ireland by a Head of State and the newspapers were filled with glamorous photos of the royals as they attended functions in the Gresham Hotel, the Abbey Theatre and visited the Kelly ancestral home in Mayo. This letter from Grace to the president is to thank him for the gift of an Irish pony which he sent to her daughter Princess Caroline when she was four years-old.
When I sought permission to include the letter in the book Princess Caroline offered to send us a previously unpublished photo to accompany it and here’s the photo: in it the young princess and her little brother Albert are meeting 'Babbling Brook' for the first time.
Also pictured is James Maher, the groom from the National Stud who accompanied the pony on its sea and rail trip from Kildare all the way to Monte Carlo.
BUILDING BRIDGES
Each of our nine presidents to date has made their own indelible mark on their presidency and each has in many ways defined the era in which they held once. Mary McAleese chose the theme of ‘Building Bridges’ to sum up her priorities, especially the use of her role, and even her presidential residence to bring communities together. As our first president from Northern Ireland, she placed a particular focus on North-South relationships. President McAleese took risks and came under fire in the press, for example when she inaugurated an annual ‘Twelfth of July Garden Party’ at Áras an Uachtaráin, inviting members of the Orange Order, marching bands and Unionist politicians to Dublin for some presidential hospitality. These initiatives demonstrate the ‘so‑ power’ that the president can use in order to make societal change, in this case, to advance the peace process.
The drawing, by 12 year-old Ciaran Smyth from Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, references the poem ‘Come to the Edge’ by Christopher Logue, which Mary McAleese had quoted in her inauguration address in November 1997. She chose this drawing as the cover of her Christmas card that year.
‘ROCKING THE SYSTEM’
The chapter on women and the presidency is called ‘Rocking the System’, referring of course to the line from Mary Robinson’s victory speech on the night she won the presidential election in 1990 to become the first woman president of Ireland. The President-elect thanked 'Mná na hÉireann' who she said; “instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system”. In her introduction to this chapter (each of the 12 chapters in the book has an introductory essay to give context to the letters) archivist and historian Catriona Crowe rightly describes the election of Mary Robinson as a watershed moment:
“The new reality that a woman could hold the highest office in the country, and could, as President Robinson did, make that office a focus for issues of social justice and equality”. This letter in red ink was given to the president during her last official engagement, when she officially opened a Focus Ireland housing project in Dublin in September 1997. It’s brief, but expresses the writer’s feelings with great sincerity: “you brought equality to women”.
The Presidents’ Letters: An Unexpected History of Ireland (New Island Books) by Flor MacCarthy, €19.99 and available now. It has been shortlisted for ‘Best Irish Produced Book’ in the An Post Irish Book Awards 2021.