HC Deb 30 July 1959 vol 610 c128W
57. Mr. Emrys Hughes

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he received representations from the Irish Government asking that the Casement Diaries should be handed over to Ireland; and what was the nature of his reply.

Mr. R. A. Butler

The return of the diaries to Ireland was one of the possibilities which was discussed with the Government of the Republic of Ireland, and which was strongly urged by them. Her Majesty's Government explained, however, that these diaries were public records and that, apart from this, to send them to Dublin would have deprived the United Kingdom of important historical evidence.

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