Lines best said softly

A COPY of the 1916 Proclamation was sold at auction by James Adams, Dublin, recently.

Simultaneously Sothebys of London also auctioned a copy.

As a member of the RTÉ repertory company I had to speak the lines of Patrick Pearse in his oration at the grave of O’Donovan Rossa.

I rang Senator Margaret Pearse, sister of Patrick Pearse, to ask advice. She said he spoke very quietly. I did exactly as I was told. “But the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead.”

Thomas Studley

56 Orwell Road

Rathgar

Dublin 6.