Czech-Irish cultural contacts in the first half of the 20th century

UCD Archive’s first post of 2026 concerns one of its small collections: a letter from Alice Hillstead Mušek, Hradec Králové, Czechoslovakia, to J. Grierson, 1 Herbert Street, Dublin.

Daniel Samek has written an interesting article on Czech-Irish cultural contacts in the first half of the 20th century that began with a visit by British and Irish journalists to Austria-Hungary in June 1905. Count Horace Plunkett, president of the Dublin Press Fund, and Richard John Kelly, editor and co-owner of the The Tuam Herald were part of the group. Actor and director, Karel Mušek and his wife, Alice Hillstead acted as guides. Mušek and Kelly became friends. Kelly sent Mušek the text of John Millington Synge’s play, In the Shadow of the Glen, which Mušek translated into Czech and staged at the Švand Theatre in 1906.

Mušek travelled to the west of Ireland so that his production of the play would be as convincing as possible. He met Synge, Lady Augusta Gregory, W.B. Yeats and Edward Martyn.

The Hillstead Mušek letter is a fascinating encapsulation of the outcome of that 1905 journalistic trip, with the inclusion of a letter from Lady Gregory and a photograph of Synge.

Hillstead Mušek was an English governess to the family of Czech actor Josef Šmaha. She married Karel Mušek in 1897. She writes to J. Grierson in 1937 concerning the purchase of a sweepstake ticket on her behalf. She hopes a win will enable her to assist her daughter to pay her bills, but worries about how her winnings might be transferred to her.

She encloses a handwritten letter of sympathy from Lady Gregory, Coole Park, written to her on the death of her husband, that she thinks might be given to a museum; and a photograph taken by her late husband of John Millington Synge at Dargle Glen in 1906.

It is a delicate thread back to her husband’s introduction to Synge’s work and then to the Irish literary life.

The Alice Hillstead Mušek letter and enclosures were deposited in UCD Archives in 1981.

UCDA LA25 Alice Hillstead Mušek letter to J. Grierson

UCDA LA25 Alice Hillstead Mušek letter to J. Grierson

Enclosure: Letter from Lady Gregory to Alice Hillstead Mušek

Nov 22 1924

Dear Madame Musek

I am indeed grieved by the sad news you send [?]. I had been anxious, on account of your last letter, some time ago, telling of your dear husband’s illness, but I trusted time might he improve. He was too young to die…I sympathise with you very deeply. …Yours, A. Gregory