FRANK RYAN. Your 144/35a

I paid my first official visit as Minister to General Jordana, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in Burgos on Easter Monday 10th April; I called at the Ministry at 12.45 p.m. and was received by him at 2.15 p.m. The Brazilian chargé d'affaires had been given an appointment at 12.30 p.m. but I was given precedence.

I appealed to General Jordana to liberate Frank Ryan. I told him that we definitely sought a favour in this and in another case (O'Toole), and that I did not expect to have to put forward any further similar requests. He replied that Ryan had been condemned to death, that this sentence had been commuted into one of penal servitude for 30 years and that it would be very difficult to comply with our request at this moment. I explained that, quite apart from any interest in Ryan's fate displayed by people with advanced liberal tendencies, there were widespread sympathy in Ireland for him and his family, that he had taken an active part in the fight for Ireland's independence, as well as in the Irish language and cultural movement, and that Irish opinion was keenly interested in his fate. I pointed out that it could only benefit the friendly relations between Ireland and Spain if his release were to take place following the presentation of my credentials as Minister to Spain and that such a friendly gesture would be accepted with gratitude by the Irish Government and by Irish public opinion generally. I told him that I knew that Ryan's name had been placed on a list of prisoners whose release was expected shortly by the British and that a reply to a question in the British House of Commons indicated that the British hoped to be able to secure his release as a result of their intervention; I warned him that it would be a fatal blunder to hand him over to the British rather than to myself. He promised to look into the matter and to communicate with me in due course; his attitude was more hopeful in regard to the possibility of a visit to Ryan by his sister, and I suggested that I might accompany latter on that occasion.

I left with General Jordana the aide-mémoire of which I sent you an advance copy of 22nd March.²