Madam, - Further to Dr Clonan's very interesting piece (March 20th) on the Cumann na mBan members involved in the Easter Rising, there was yet another woman who made her way to the GPO that morning, but she had done so to rebuke "Mr Pearse".
Surprisingly - or perhaps not, he was her employer after all - he presented himself to receive Louise Gavan Duffy's lecture "that the Rebellion was a frightful mistake, that could not possibly succeed and that it was, therefore, wrong".
He heard her out with calm courtesy and then asked if she would like to help in the kitchen, which she did under the direction of Desmond FitzGerald.
On the following Friday evening, they were in the last party to evacuate the building, carrying the wounded by way of walls broken through in a series of houses in Henry Street and Prince's Street. They made their slow progress to Jervis Street Hospital under a Red Cross flag and accompanied in the latter part of their journey by a detachment of British soldiers.
On her release the next day, she went off undaunted to Jacob's factory to tell Thomas McDonagh of the surrender, which she had just heard about.
He refused to believe her, so she went back the next day to tell him "that it was all over, that it should not have taken place, that it was wrong and could not have succeeded".
He was understandably furious and forbade her to speak to his men. She and Min Ryan then left, taking Máire Ní Shiubhlaigh with them; she apparently had been there all week and was "in a bad state".
Louise Gavan Duffy gave a lengthy statement to the Bureau of Military History in April 1949.
More than 50 years later, the bureau's invaluable records are, at last, available to the public, as was, presumably, the original intention, thanks to the heroic work of Comdt Laing and his staff at the Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks. - Yours, etc,
MARY KOTSONOURIS, Castleconnell, Co Limerick.