Sir, – "There are few other references to it in literature of the period", writes Frank McNally in his discussion of the word "crossness", used, he concludes, in the 1920s as a euphemism for the Civil War (An Irishman's Diary , August 6th).
One such reference occurring three years before HV Morton's reporting of it in 1930 is in Stephen Gwynn's guidebook, Ireland.
Gwynn is giving the history of Leinster House and the buildings adjacent to it. “In the first days of 1922 an Irish Government was looking for quarters. Yet the crossness (decidedly, I prefer that word) was such that it had to operate from a fortress [. . .] and the first session of the Dáil (strongly guarded) took place in what had been the Royal Dublin Society’s lecture theatre and concert-room”.
In his desire not to “mention the war” in front of the future tourist, Gwynn skips nimbly over the months of “crossness” from the split between the pro- and anti-Treaty sides of early January to the first meeting of the pro-Treaty third Dáil of September when the Civil War was raging.
Might “decidedly, I prefer that word” indicate that he is coining the euphemism? – Yours, etc,
DONAL McMAHON,
Saggart, Dublin 24.