Sir, - Dr Garret FitzGerald states (September 14th) that he had difficulty with the kind of language employed by Michael Collins in Neil Jordan's film. While researching my biographies of Sean MacEoin and Ernie, O'Malley, and my Who's Who in Ireland's Wars 1916-1923 (soon to be published), I interviewed dozens of contemporaries of Collins, all of them now dead.
Furthermore, while writing my Collins novel (just reissued as Rebel Heart by Brandon Books), I sent questionnaires to people who associated with Collins in different situations. Specifically, I asked if he used certain expletives. To the blunt question: "Did Collins use the word F***?" the answer, in every case, was "No".
His frequent use of the Holy Name was, however, confirmed. For the record, two brief episodes in my novel convey what Dr FitzGerald calls "the religious aspect of the man". - Yours, etc.,
Mullingar.