Dev's approval for diplomat spies unlikely

RYLE DWYER makes the extraordinary claim that in September 1943, Eamonn de Valera approved the plan that our diplomatic representatives in Berlin, Rome, and Vichy be recruited by the OSS and used as American spies (Irish Examiner, February 21). He further implies that this actually happened.

I cannot envisage de Valera even contemplating putting Irish diplomats in such a compromising and illegal position, not to speak of putting their lives in danger, which could so easily be the case in the then war-time conditions. In any event, it would be most unlikely that the diplomats involved would give their consent to this harebrained scheme.

I have trawled through Tim Pat Coogan's biography of de Valera, in which he treats this period in some detail. However, I can find no mention of the above claim.