The next extract is from the diary of Dr Richard Hayes. Doctor Hayes was the Director of the National Library of Ireland in the 1940s. He was also Ireland’s most brilliant codebreaker as well as an interrogator of captured German spies during World War II. In this extract, Dr Hayes describes an encounter with Hermann Görtz, a German spy who parachuted into Ireland in 1940 and who, with the help of Irish republicans, was sending coded messages back to Berlin.
What I will learn:
format and language in diary entries
to write a diary entry from an opposing point of view
Extract from the Diary of Dr Richard Hayes
Perhaps I should now mention an experience I had with Görtz while he was in Arbour Hill Prison because it is a very amusing story. One day when talking to Görtz, I noticed that he had a bunch of papers in his hip pocket of his trousers – a rather thick bunch of papers. He was allowed to have papers in his cell because he passed the time reading and writing a play and therefore he had all the materials for writing. I was very intrigued to know what was in this bunch of papers which he had in his pocket because I suspected him for some time of being able to get messages out to the I.R.A. through some of the guards in the Prison who were Military Policemen. In fact this proved to be true, but we were unable to prove it at the time. I said to myself how can I possibly get at these messages or whatever they were in his pocket. I used to search his cell regularly when he was out on exercise but never found anything else there which could have helped, and I asked myself how I
20 FIRE & ICE 2
The story is introduced here when the writer mentions something he experienced.
Tension builds as the writer describes his suspicions of Görtz
