Words more powerful than the sword

THE importance of writing, reading and replying to letters is illustrated by many instances throughout history.

The ancient Spartans showed that even the briefest of replies can have a powerful effect. In 346BC, the father of Alexander The Great, Phillip II of Macedon, was about to undertake a war of conquest throughout Greece. He wrote to the Spartans warning them to acquiesce in the face of his powerful army because if he won the war, he would make them slaves forever.

It appears the Spartans replied with one word that simply read, “If”. Philip proceeded to destroy most of Greece and left the Spartans untouched.

In 1916 during the executions of the leaders of the Easter Rising, Bishop Edward Thomas O’Dwyer of Limerick wrote an open letter to the British Commanding Officer General Maxwell objecting to the executions. His letter is often credited with turning the tide of public opinion in favour of the rebellion.

The same bishop was equally adept at writing pithy and powerful personal letters. By way of explanation, to work as a priest in any diocese, the local bishop gives one a licence known as ‘faculties’. Nowa priest in west Limerick who owned a particularly good stallion was earning handsome stud fees thanks to the efforts of the well-bred animal. Bishop Edward Thomas was not at all pleased and wrote to the enterprising clergyman leaving him little option but to desist: “Dear Father, Either you deprive that stallion of its faculties or I will deprive you of yours.”