Sir, - Kitty Kiernan was no Joan of Arc, but it is misleading - and unfair - to imply that she was a Longford gombeen. Sinead McCoole's comments (November 9th) are both inaccurate and misleading.
It is not true, as McCoole asserts, that Kitty was politically naive - her contacts with leading women and men of the time may at times have had a distinctly social ring, but they were well established long before she met Michael Collins. It is not true that Kitty was rarely in Dublin, nor that she was "far away from the action". Kitty suffered imprisonment for three days, the pillage of Granard and the burning of her home and business following her presence at the murder of a district inspector in her hotel. Her associate, Sean MacEoin, was director of operations for Longford.
McCoole's only source for her assertions seems to be Leon O Broin's In Great Haste, the private letters of Collins and Kiernan (usually the only source for Collins biographers too). Despite O Broin's text, McCoole's biography of Hazel Lavery delays the date of Kitty and Michael's meeting alters the date of their engagement and more tellingly, alters the tone of O Broin's comments about why Collins sent Lavery's letters to Kitty by attributing to O Broin the word "selectively" when he did not use that word. She completely omits John Lavery's evidence about how Kitty and Hazel embraced spontaneously at Collins's funeral.
McCoole's assertion that Michael Collins was in love with Lavery is a matter of opinion, but not of historical fact. Meda Ryan author of a forthcoming publication about Collin relationships with women, reveals that Todd Andrews conducted a thorough investigation into Collins's relationship with Lavery on behalf of Cathal Brugha, with a view to discrediting the pro Treaty forces. Mr Andrews, later a respected economist and commentator but then a committed anti Treatyite, found no basis whatever for rumours of a romantic attachment.
Ms McCoole has admitted on Kenny Live and elsewhere that her, methodology in narrating aspects of the Lavery/Collins relationships was in error. Her sources included, Hazel Lavery herself, whom, McCoole elsewhere describes as theatrical and prone to distorting facts; Shane Leslie, elsewhere described by McCoole as given to embellishing the truth; a confidential source; and papers in the possession of Mr Eoghan Harris, who also acted as editorial adviser.
Had Lavery been included in the Collins movie, McCoole, her publishers and their associates could have legitimately expected massively increased sales of the book worldwide. Unfortunately, the admitted errors were not corrected for the book's reprint and therefore continue to pose as fact.
History is big enough in include both Kitty Kiernan and Hazel Lavery, without staging a cat fight based around the affections of Michael Collins. Film makers may be excused, if not forgiven, for presenting women in a one dimensional way, but real life is always more complex. - Yours, etc.,
Royal Terrace West,
Dun Laoghaire.