Captain George Berkeley Descriptive List (Ref. PR12)

PR12/

2pp

102 3 September 1914

Letter from R.E. Longfield, Cashel, Connemara, to George Berkeley. Mentions discussion with Colonel Moore. ‘H.R (Home Rule) has become a v. small matter…’.

103 6 September 1914

Letter from Alberta Longfield, Longueville, Mallow, Co. Cork, to ‘My dear George. ‘As one who has known you since you were a small boy I…must tell you how shocked I am to think you have thrown your lot in with Redmond’s Volunteers’. Mentions young Lord Carbery flying in Cork with a green flag, but who will not settle in Cork and has never shown any real interest in his home or people. Notes that Ireland has always been divided and England is needed to ensure peace and prosperity.

8pp

104 8 September 1914

Letter, from R.E. Longfield, Mallow, to George Berkeley. The Home Rule question is of ‘ v. little importance in face of peril of German invasion’. He doubts that Redmond has much authority over the Irish Volunteers and that their spirit id ‘very Anti English’. He has been told that Home Rule would not conciliate the extreme men, numerous in the Irish Volunteers. ‘In deciding to organise them I fear you & others are forging a weapon that will be turned against you…’.

3pp

105 9 September 1914

Letter from R.E. Longfield, Mallow, to George Berkeley. ‘I did not find one line in your letter of conviction that Home Rule would be Ireland’s salvation…’. The war raging would make ‘every thinking man realise what a miserable thing it would be for Ireland at this moment if she were a ‘nation once again’. Ireland ‘is not important to the Nations unless attached to England. We may suffer individually as residents here…’.

4pp

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