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Volume 7 1941~1945

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No. 378  NAI DFA Secretary's Files Memoranda to Taoiseach 1944

Memorandum by Joseph P. Walshe for Eamon de Valera (Dublin)
‘Suggestions for increased Precautions on the Border’

DUBLIN, 2 March 1944

Messrs. Duff1 and Costigan,2 Colonel Bryan, Chief Superintendent O’Carroll, Mr. Boland and myself, discussed today how best to lessen the possibilities of leakage of information from the Six Counties into this territory.

It was generally agreed that no measures could be really spy-proof. On the other hand, it was thought that a good deal of the responsibility for leakage could be placed on the shoulders of the British authorities, and it would be advisable to do so by making the following suggestions to them:-

  1. no person during the critical period should be allowed to travel from the six to the twenty-six counties without a permit issued by the British;
  2. we should set up an inspection of these permits on our side of the Border;
  3. the possession of a permit or passport by persons travelling from the twenty-six to the six counties, which is not yet a legal obligation, should be made such, and the document should be inspected on entry into the six counties;
  4. the permits of travellers returning to either area should be stamped at the Border before re-entry into the home territory.

It would place the onus much more definitely on the British if, in addition, travellers to the six counties had to obtain an exit visa from the British before entering the six counties. Such a measure, however, might cause real difficulty to our people in the counties near the Border, and it has the political disadvantage of obliging Irish people to seek the permission of the British authorities to enter a section of their own country.

There is no doubt that these regulations, if put into force, would bring about a considerable decrease in the number of travellers between the two areas, and it might lessen the flow of recruits who are at present completely free to cross the Border.

[initialled] J. P. W. 2nd March, 1944

[handwritten marginal note by Walshe]
Sir John Maffey, in the course of a conversation this morning thought aloud that it might be a good thing if we had a discussion with Mr. X on precautions which might be taken in connection with the approaching climax of the war. I said it would be better to have Mr. Y also. In any case I said I should mention the matter to you.3

J.P.W. 6th March

1 John Duff (1895-1949), Assistant Secretary, Department of Justice, later Secretary of the Department (1949).

2 Daniel Costigan (1911-79), Assistant Principal Officer, Department of Justice, later Assistant Secretary (1949-52), Commissioner of An Garda Síochána (1952-65).

3 ‘Mr. X’ and ‘Mr. Y’ may refer to Cecil and Guy Liddell of MI5.

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