Sir, – I wish to thank you for your “Stories of the Rising” supplement (January 17th). It was wonderful to get an insight into the ordinary participants and their contribution to the independence struggle.
I was particularly impressed by the image of the captured prisoners in Stafford Prison. Looking at their faces and reading about them reminded me of one of the only references to the regular volunteers.
It was during a radio interview about the volunteers some time ago on RTÉ, when Roddy Doyle referred to the “smelly cyclists who cycled into town all the way from Kimmage with a gun under their great coat in the month of April, can you imagine the smell off them”.
Well I’m glad the archives of the Bureau of Military History gives us the opportunity to learn more about the “smelly cyclists”. – Yours, etc,
PHILIP TOBIN,
Whitecliff,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
Sir, – Stephen Collins (Heritage, January 17th) writes that famous revolutionary and statesman Frank Aiken was in receipt of the top rate military service pension of £350 a year on top of his ministerial and TD’s salary. But it is important to note, as the recent releases show, that Aiken originally applied for his pension in 1936 only to withdraw his application in 1942. Although his service record in the evolutionary period warranted the top rate of pension, he did not reapply until 1955 – after Fianna Fáil had lost power to the second Inter-party government. – Yours, etc,
Dr BRYCE EVANS,
Liverpool Hope University,
Co-editor,
Frank Aiken: Nationalist
and Internationalist (IAP,
2014),
Hope park,
Liverpool,
England.