Beschreibung:

Frank Ryan (1902-1944), Editor of An Phoblacht An important group of 22 letters to Louis Le Roux, 1931-32, 16 ALS and 6 TLS, mostly on An Phoblacht headed paper, partly concerning Ryan's efforts to arrange publication in English of Le Roux' biography of Pearse, with enclosures from publishers and with carbon copies of three letters from Le Roux to Ryan. LeRoux may have made contact with Frank Ryan through his editorship of the IRA journal An Phoblacht. About 1931 LeRoux (then living in England) appointed Ryan as his agent to arrange publication of his work in English, offering him a 15% fee on receipts; Ryan also invited him to write articles for An Phoblacht. Much of the correspondence concerns Ryan's dealings with publishers for the Pearse book, and with his suggested corrections to Le Roux' text, but there are many illuminating references to Ryan's other activities and his views on various issues, at a time when the rise of Fianna Fail posed urgent problems of political strategy for Republicans. Ryan's letter of 22.8.31 notes that he has just finished a two months' jail sentence, and is due to be rearrested shortly to serve a separate one month sentence. 'Meanwhile I'm trying to pick up all the news I can as I will have neither letters, visits nor newspapers when I return to prison.' The next (undated) letter, probably in reply to an offer of help from Le Roux, says 'Don't worry about me. I guess you find it hard to understand our ways here. I've already 'done' 2 mths because I refused to give bail. Now I'm to do 1 mth. more because I refuse to pay 40/-. God bless your innocent heart (as we say here) but I could find a few thousand people to pay fine or go bail for me!' On 4.11.31, 'I have seen one of the advance copies of this week's issue of An Phoblacht. (I do not yet know if the issue will be seized; the C.I.D. are in the printing-works, I hear, just now). The issue is not as good as I would like it to be. Many current events have to pass unreported & uncommented on - as I cannot now be in the printing-works the day we go to press. My latest news is that Dublin Castle says, ''Get Frank Ryan at all costs!''. I'm not yet ''got''.' In a long 8-page letter (4.11.'31), he mentions a split in the (Breton) Parti Autonomiste. 'One thing I say from my experience of splits in Ireland - that I would give anything to prevent them. And unfortunately the passage of time often makes the rival parties all the more bitter - and unity is further retarded. See Ireland today!' On the importance of language to nationality, 'I see that you put the language first. That's right - provided that 'language first' as a rallying call .. isn't used to destroy the national movement for freedom. [You see France could (if a miracle happened!) give you full facilities to restore your language, in return for, say, an Oath of Allegiance to France]. Therefore, ensure first that the language has a good hope of revival. For, once the language goes, some of nationality goes .. Douglas Hyde has often said that the Gaelic Revival in Ireland made Easter Week possible. He's wrong. There would have been an Easter Week, had there been no Revival. In fact it was Easter Week made the language revival of 1916-22 possible. That's one of the reasons why I believe that language & liberty must be sought together. Here's another reason: There are more Irish-speakers in Ireland today than there were in 1921. But less Irish is spoken. The spirit for Irish has been killed by the Treaty.' On 30.3.32 [after Fianna Fail's general election victory]; 'Last week .. I went off to my mother's home-place in Clare, hoping for quiet & rest, all I got was brass bands & torchlight processions & speeches. Such a life! How many of these folk will cheer for me a year hence, I wonder? Not many, I think. Internal politics will take at least a month to settle here .. I hope all parties of us will be able to reach a working agreement - that is, a permanent agreement. There is no difficulty in p