TIME WARNER

Peter Quinn
Corporate Editorial Director

Dear Seamus Curran,

It is with great enthusiasm and true conviction that I write in support of erecting a monument to John Devoy in his native town of Naas. Devoy,s influence on Irish history was profound,especiall,and not despite,the five decades he spent here in New York City.

A Fenian convict deported to america,with his sentance of life improsonment altered to perpetual exile, Devoynever surrendered his hope for the achievement of irish independance. Fierce and unremitting in his devotion to his goal, he was, nevertheless, an activist who put pragmatism ahead of ideology, and political reality over revolutionary purity, always able to choose the achievable over vain pursuit of the ideal.

Both during the Land war of the 1880s and the treaty debate of the 1920s,Devoy was a strong advocate of replacing violence with political action. His desire was to advance the flesh-and-blood interests of the Irish people never failed to take precedence over philosophical abstractions and partisan interests. He was highly influential in marshalling Irish-American support both for the War of Independance and for the settlement that ended it.

Devoy,s pivitol role in the achievement of Irish freedom has recently received overdue recognition in Irish Rebel, a highly praised biography by American journalist and historian Terry Golway. Now it is time, I believe,for devoy,s own country-the Irish nation he worked so selflessly and steadfastly during 50 years of exile to bring into existance-to pay tribute to his constancy,commitment and sacrifice with a memorial.

Though sometimes intemperate, even vitriolic,in his speech, Devoy was indomitable in his commitment to Ireland and its people, of whatever denomination, and unwavering in his support of democratic and non-sectarian self-rule. Among families like mine, who arrived in America as a result of the famine of the 1840s and neither forgot nor denied their ties to Ireland. Devoy,s memory was long remembered and continually honored.

Devoy was a rebel with a cause,and in honoring him, the Irish people will be affirming their ties with the immense Irish diaspora across the world and with the struggle for human dignity and freedom, wherever it is being waged. The anti-imperialist cause he spent a lifetime serving- the right of every nation and every people to determine its own future-has never been more important and urgent. Certainly, few if any figures in the history of America and Ireland more fully embody the ties between our two peoples,if not always their goverments,or our shared ambition to open the path of democratic progress for all,than John Devoy.

Sincerely,
Peter Quinn