Volume 7 1941~1945


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 177  NAI DFA Secretary's Files A43

Personal code telegram from Robert Brennan to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(No. 52)

WASHINGTON, 2 February 1942

During the past five days, I have interviewed many people in New York, including Conboy, Walshe, Farley, Cohalan, Fr. Flanagan, Shanley, Paul O'Dwyer, Joseph McLoughlin, United Irish Counties, etc. They are all angry about Expeditionary Force. Some individuals had put forward ideas for making public protest, but all above-mentioned agreed it was out of the question and, in the present mood of the public, would do more harm than good. Most of them held that Administration would not dare invade the South or countenance such by British.

Judge [Cohalan], who is ill, was very pessimistic. He said 'all who might have stood up to the Administration have run to cover, including the Irish'.

On the other hand, many letters continue to arrive enthusiastically approving stand in my letter.1

1 On 4 February Brennan amplified this view with a telegram to Dublin that 'there is increasing evidence to show bulk of rank and file Irish-Americans are still sound.' (NAI DFA Secretary's Files A43, Brennan to Walshe (No. 66)).