[2][3] A graduate of Trinity College Dublin,[4] she is the subject of the 2009 book by Pat Walsh, The Curious Case of the Mayo Librarian, and a RTÉ documentary of the same name.
[4][5] The Library Committee of Mayo County Council, mostly consisting of prominent local Catholics as well as a bishop, refused to endorse the recommendation, claiming her grasp of Irish was inadequate.
[6][2][4] The government's stance was strongly opposed by some prominent Catholic clerics and politicians, including Opposition leader Éamon de Valera.
[6] Despite the government standing its ground on the appointment, a boycott of the library ensued which eventually resulted in W. T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council, and Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. Thomas Gilmartin, coming to an agreement to transfer Dunbar-Harrison from Mayo to a Department of Defence post in Dublin in January 1932.
If this librarian were simply a sort of clerk, who attended to somebody who came in and handed out a book which that person asked for, then I would not have any hesitation in saying that it was not an educational position, and that there was no reason whatever for introducing religion in that case ... the people of Mayo, in a county where, I think—I forget the figures—over 98 per cent.
Trinity culture is not the culture of the Gael; rather it is poison gas to the kindly Celtic people.Michael D. Higgins (now President of Ireland) also suggested that sectarianism was a factor:[10] I refer to the case of Miss Dunbar Harrison in Mayo who was appointed by the Local Appointments Commission as a librarian.
[11] Professor John A. Murphy argued that it was a case of local versus national government:[12] The Taoiseach drew up Mr. de Valera's attitude to the appointment of a librarian in County Mayo.
It might be noted for the record that the reason why his political opposite number – I think it was General Mulcahy who was the appropriate Minister at that time – in Cumann na nGaedheal wanted to keep Miss Letitia Dunbar Harrison in office was not because he was somehow inflamed with non-sectarian zeal but because he did not like the action of the Mayo County Council in suspending her.