Last week I visited Tony Murray, Director of Irish Studies and curator of the Archive of the Irish in Britain at the London Metropolitan University. I gave him family mementos of the visit of Eamon de Valera to Lincoln in early October 1950. De Valera escaped from Lincoln prison in February 1919 and, over thirty years later, visited the gaol and inspected his old cell. He was the guest of honour at a dinner hosted by the Anti-Partition of Ireland League of Great Britain. Frank Aiken, close friend and comrade and a committed anti-Partitionist accompanied him.
The hugely popular Archive of the Irish in Britain has been digitised. The launch of the Digitised Archive of the Irish in Britain will be in the Wash Houses, Aldgate, March 9, 2020. A range of material will be on display at the event.