Geoffrey Henry Browne, third Baron Oranmore and Browne, K.P., P.C., cannot have had publication in mind when he penned his journal; many entries are too personal. He chronicled the progress of his children, Dominick, Kathleen and Geoffrey, detailing their childhood ailments without even drawing a veil over a tonsillectomy on the kitchen table. Of recurrent concern was the health of his wife, Onie. It is a private document, written with evident candour. Much of it properly concerns only the Browne family. However, there is a seam, rich in Anglo-Irish politics, which runs throughout the journal and which merits a wider audience. In selecting passages for publication, I have attempted to mine this seam faithfully if concisely, retaining a limited measure of anecdote and human interest in order to illuminate Oranmore’s attitudes as a southern Unionist, for this apella-tion can have the resonance of an oxymoron to modern ears.