Edition Bobbett1. Texts by Elizabeth F. Bobbett: 1.1.3. Correspondence, Letters to newspapers

1938 Elizabeth Bobbett: Letter to the Irish Independent, 31.12.1938

Foreign Refugees

Sir. I read with interest in the daily newspapers of December 9, 1938, of a setting up of a Co-ordinating Committee for the Relief of Christian Refugees from Central Europe, and read the text of the appeal. This is a very praiseworthy and noble action, but, being brought up in a good Catholic home, I was always taught that charity begins at home. Knowing the conditions in rural Ireland to-day, and the poverty of the farmers, I feel compelled to write this letter to draw attention to their plight, and ask the members of the Committee which has been set up to look after the interests of foreign refugees would they help to keep our own kith and kin in rural Ireland and save them from enforced emigration?

It strikes me that subscription lists can be opened for various charitable purposes, but never a word of sympathy or a fund to help the farmers, who have lost so much, and of whom many are destitute. One of the many instances which came to my notice lately was a poor famer’s wife needing immediate hospital treatment. Her local doctor said he could not send her to the hospital or County Home as she was not entitled to a “red ticket”, and if he sent her to a Dublin hospital, he would be surcharged himself. The poor woman must suffer on. I wonder do the Committee realise the conditions of the famers. I note many eminent names, and feel sure that if they really understood the distress of the farmers they would do something to help them. I am sure one sentence from the Committee would be sufficient to bring relief to hundreds of thousands in rural Ireland.

Elizabeth F. Bobbett. Springfield, Kilbride, Wicklow.