[ Robert Lynd, Irish Nationalist journalist. ] Copy of Typed Letter 'To the Editor of the "Irish Times.", regarding the state of 'the campaign against partition' following 'the Northern Ireland election'

6pp., 4to. In fair condition, on aged paper with worn edges. It is not known whether the letter was sent or published. The Lynds settled at their celebrated London address of 5 Keats Grove (where James Joyce had his wedding reception) in 1924, but the letter was clearly written after the Second World War: 'Now that the Northern Ireland election is over, it may be worth considering whether the campaign against partition, if continued on its present lines, is likely to be effective in achieving its end. I do not think I am alone among those who wish for a united Ireland in fearing that the gulf between Eire and Northern Ireland is being deepened instead of being bridged by present methods of propaganda.' He wishes to combat what he sees as an 'illusion': the assumption on which 'the great Nationalist parties seem to be basing their strategy', 'that the key to Irish unity lies, not in Dublin, but in London'. He believes it unlikely that England 'could use force to crush the Ulster Unionists [...] now, especially, that a third world war seems, at least, a possibility'. It strikes him as impossible that Britain would consider withdrawing its troops from Northern Ireland before 'Russia is prepared to live at peace with Western Europe andn America'. He discusses the role of invaders in the History of Ireland: 'Nationalists are apt to forget that the Gael, no less than the Ulster Unionist, is in Ireland as a result of foreign conquest or invasion.' He finds that 'the anti-partition campaign' is 'carried on just now in a hostile spirit. Eire, indeed, is more conciliatory to England than to Northern Ireland, more hostile to Northern Ireland than to England.' Nationalists allege that Northern Ireland is 'a totalitarian tyranny on a level with the most savage European dictatorships', but 'it is better to keep to the truth, as Michael Collins was careful to do when he was so effective an organiser of propaganda in the days of the Black and Tans and the Auxilliary.' He quotes twice from the poet Thomas Davis, and recalls how 'Fifty years or so ago I heard Dr. Douglas Hyde acclaiming the language movement as a dove of peace that would reconcile all Ireland. It is time another dove of peace was sent out on this same sacred mission.' From the Lynd Family Papers.