Collins (Michael) An interesting typed letter subscribed ‘Ai...

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Collins (Michael) An interesting typed letter subscribed ‘Aire Airgid’ [Minister for Finance],  carbon copy, on plain paper, unsigned, entirely in Irish, dated 12 Bealtaine [May] 1920, addressed to  Peadar Ó hAnnracháin (the Gaelic League organiser) in Skibbereen, Co. Cork,  apparently concerning a request for assistance from local fishermen. Collins says he will write to Iarom Ui Arrachtain as suggested, and when a reply is received, he will lay the matter before the [Dail] Director of Fisheries;  but he says the first thing to be done is to set up a [Co-operative] Society,  ‘as we deal only with Societies and  not with individuals’. Probably the enquiry concerned a loan or grant from the Dail for better boats or facilities. 

A typically businesslike response from Collins, indicating how the matter should be progressed, evidently translated for him as the Irish is flawless, with m/ss name in Collins hand top left. Peadar Ó hAnnracháin (1873-1965), from the Skibbereen area, was a Gaelic League organiser, poet and Volunteer, several times imprisoned after 1916.