Volume 9 1948~1951


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 219 NAI DFA/5/305/14/22/1

Extract from a letter from Matthew Murphy to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)
(8/2)

Buenos Aires, 24 December 1948

[matter omitted]

An opportunity recently presented itself when I received a visit from Mr. W. Sassen, a native of Holland, who arrived in Buenos Aires about 7 weeks ago. He claims to have entered Ireland as a political refugee and spent some years there. He states he travelled here on an Irish Nansen passport and will remain here indefinitely on business, the nature of which he did not state. He claims to have translated into Dutch 'Orange Terror' and handed me a copy of same.1 He would like to have that publication translated into Spanish, write articles on Partition and put over radio broadcasts on the subject. As a beginning he proposes to write a series of articles on Ireland generally for publication in 'Epoca' a local evening paper edited by Mr. Eduardo Colon, a Peronista Deputy for the Federal Capital. The 'Epoca' is the least popular of the Buenos Aires press and is violently pro-Peronista.

I gave him all available material on Partition and also the names and addresses of such persons as Mr. Denis Duggan, former I.R.A. and Mr. Timotheo Ussher and others who have always favoured initiating some kind of an anti-Partition campaign but who so far have done nothing in that direction.

Mr. Sassen stated that he is a close friend of Father Senan2 O.F.M. Cap. and presented the Legation with a copy of the 1948 edition of the Capuchin Annual. I shall appreciate being supplied with all available information regarding Mr. Sassen and to be informed if it is desired that we continue to co-operate with him.

1 An anti-partition pamphlet by 'Ultach' based on an article in the Capuchin Annual published in Dublin in late 1943 on the nature of government and society in Northern Ireland. The pamphlet was banned in Northern Ireland.

2 Fr Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. (1900-70), editor of the Capuchin Annual (1930-53).