"Immediately my wife read the letter, she handed it to me. As the threat seemed to be very immediate, I called 999 and within a very short time a garda arrived in a squad car and collected the letter." Mr Lynch, a Dubliner, said that the threatening letter read:

"Dear Mrs Lynch, a man has been appointed to shoot your husband. Don't be a fool - keep him in the house.

Lemass was lucky he got out when he did." The letter, which was signed "a friend", was postmarked N�s-na-R�. Mr Lynch said:

"My first reaction was that the letter was a joke, but I then realised it was a threat, and with feelings the way they are at the moment, I thought the best thing to do was to alert the garda� immediately."

As the two Lynch families live near each other, Mr Jack Lynch, the electrician, often gets telephone calls and letters for Mr Jack Lynch, the Taoiseach. Jack, the electrician added:

"Whenever I get letters for the Taoiseach, I re-address them to his own home. But one man came on the phone recently and gave out stink because his brother didn't get some job or other. He was crosser still when I told him he was talking to Jack Lynch, the electrician, and not Jack Lynch, the Taoiseach." A garda officer told me they were not taking the letter seriously as it was obviously the work of a crank.

Belfast News-Letter 5 March 1907 INQUESTS in Belfast - a burning fatality. The coroner also inquired, in the workhouse, into the circumstances attending the death of Susan Travers, aged 25 years, who resided at 30 Fairfax Street. Joseph Travers, brother of the deceased, said on 11th November, 1905, he was at home, and remembered Richard Irons coming into his room and shaking him about the middle of the night. He got up, and found the bedding on fire, and his sister burned about the body. She was taken to the Mater Infirmorum Hospital where she remained two months. She was removed to the union infirmary later on. His sister was taken out of the infirmary some time after, but had to return, and died there. To a juror - there was a candle sitting on the floor in his sister's room, and some of the clothing of the bed, which was spread on the bed, must have caught fire. The candle had burned down almost to the floor. There was no candlestick used. Dr Logan, union infirmary, said that the deceased was first admitted on the 12th December, 1905, suffering from burns to the arms and body. She was allowed out at her own request on 9th February, 1906, but returned again on the 15th.

She had remained in the institution since then until she died. The burns had never properly healed.

Death was due to cardiac failure, following inflammation. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.