Book review: The Presidents’ Letters is a fascinating treasure trove from the Áras
Douglas Hyde: Letter stated that ‘Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would be honoured if you were to be named as President of Ireland’. Picture: Keystone/Getty Images
On April 28, 1938, the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Éamon de Valera and Liam T Cosgrave, wrote to former senator Douglas Hyde: “A Dhuine Uasail, Ba mhian le Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael go n-ainmneófaí tusa le bheith i d’Uachtarán ar Éirinn.” In English, it reads: “Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would be honoured if you were to be named as President of Ireland.”
The letter is reproduced in Flor MacCarthy’s fascinating The Presidents’ Letters: An Unexpected History of Ireland, and, in the words of Irish Times journalist Harry McGee, “it was an early and excellent example of what is now known as ‘new politics’”.
