Subsérie 5 - Correspondence and Papers of the Pearse Family

The subseries comprises a small collection of papers relating to the Pearse family, most notably Patrick Pearse (1879-1916), a writer, educationalist, and revolutionary. The collection also includes material relating to Patrick’s father, James Pearse (1839-1900), an English stonemason and sculptor who came to Ireland in about 1860. Following the death of his first wife in 1876, James Pearse married Margaret Brady (1857-1932), a Dublin-born shop assistant. The couple had four children, Margaret Mary Pearse (born 1878), Patrick Pearse (born 1879), William Pearse (born 1881), and Mary Brigid Pearse (born 1884). The collection includes some papers compiled by Margaret Pearse (née Brady), later a prominent nationalist figure and Dáil deputy, and her eldest daughter Margaret Mary Pearse (1878-1968), a teacher and Fianna Fáil politician. There are also a small number of papers associated with William Pearse (1881-1916), the younger son in the Pearse family. Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’, was a close acquaintance of Margaret Mary Pearse and corresponded with her frequently. Moynihan was seemingly gifted this small archive of family records by Margaret Mary Pearse, and the collection was later preserved among his personal papers.