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Life insurance policy letter from the Patriotic Assurance Company for Patrick Pearse, 5 George’s Ville (now Sandymount Avenue), Dublin. 5 Feb. 1901. The insurance policy is for £300 at the rate of £1 6s 1d payable half yearly … ‘the sum assured being payable at death or at 60 years of age with profits’. With a receipt for payment on said policy dated 31 January 1902.

The subseries comprises a small collection of papers relating to the Irish writer and translator Tadhg Ó Murchadha, who was known by the pseudonym ‘Seandún’.

Ó Murchadha was born in Macroom in County Cork in September 1843. He was baptized on 4 September 1843. His native language was Irish. Before the famine, most of the population of Macroom were Irish speakers. He trained as a tailor and moved to Cork in 1864 where he spent the rest of his life. He learned to read and write Irish and encountered many of those involved in the Irish revival movement. In 1885 he met Donnchadh Pléimionn (1867-1900), a noted Gaelic author and journalist, and it seems that Ó Murchadha’s interest in language matters began in earnest around this time. He was a founder member of the Cork branch of Gaelic League in 1894. Ó Murchadha had a fine appreciation of the flexibility of the Irish language and in his writing, he sought after accuracy and polish and achieved a style that was natural and free from self-consciousness. He emerged as a pioneer in Irish translation at the beginning of the Gaelic revival. His earliest attempt at writing was a translation of Robert Emmet’s ‘Speech from the dock’, and he went on to translate, under the title ‘Toradh na Gaedhilge ar aitheasc agus ar ghréithribh na nGaedhael’ (1905), William O’Brien’s ‘The influence of the Irish language on Irish national literature and character’. Ó Murchadha remains best known for his translations although he did contribute articles to the ‘Cork Weekly Examiner’ and the ‘Gaelic Journal’. He wrote an account of the life of Donnchadh Pléimionn which appeared in the ‘Weekly Examiner’ on 13 September 1900.

He compiled an Irish translation of Daniel Dafoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ under the title ‘Eachtra Robinson Crúsó’ which was published by the Gaelic League in 1909. Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (‘Torna’) (1874-1949), later Professor of Irish in University College Cork, remarked that Ó Murchadha’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ was the best translation he had ever read. About 1912, when his sight was beginning to fail, Ó Murchadha began to dictate an autobiographical account of his life, which was transcribed by friends and admirers among them Diarmuid Ó Murchadha and Toirdhealbhach Mac Suibhne (Terence MacSwiney), who during the War of Independence prepared a section of it dealing with the years of the Fenian rising for publication in book form under the title ‘Sgéal “Sheandúin”’ (1920). However, Ó Murchadha never saw it in print as he died in Cork on 13 April 1919. The second part of Ó Murchadha’s recollections was edited and published by Br. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. in the Irish Capuchin periodical ‘The Father Mathew Record’ (July 1924-August 1925). The articles again appeared under the title ‘Sgéal “Sheandúin”’.

Much of the material listed here is associated with Moynihan’s publication of the second part of Ó Murchadha’s memoir. The file includes original material from several associates and admirers of Ó Murchadha including Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (‘Torna’), Terence MacSwiney, and Douglas Hyde. The collection also includes correspondence from Fr. Laurence Dowling OFM Cap. (the editor of ‘The Father Mathew Record’), Máire Nic Shuibhne (Mary MacSwiney), Diarmuid Ó Murchadha, Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap., and Shan Ó Cuiv. Some letters from Frank Ryan, the well-known Irish socialist and republican activist, are also extant in the collection. Ryan seemingly assisted Moynihan in preparing Ó Murchadha’s memoir for publication. The collection also includes Moynihan’s manuscript drafts of ‘Sgéal “Sheandúin”’ along with a copy of Ó Murchadha translation of Robert Emmet’s ‘Speech from the dock’ written by Terence MacSwiney.

A collection of mainly legal and financial papers relating to St. Enda’s School (Scoil Éanna), an Irish language college established by Patrick Pearse in Cullenswood House on Oakley Road in Ranelagh, Dublin, in 1908. The school moved to the Hermitage, a former country house in Rathfarnham, in 1910. Pearse founded St. Ita’s School for girls along the same general lines as St. Enda’s in Cullenswood House in 1910, when he moved St. Enda's boys' school to Rathfarnham. Some of the records refer to the precarious financial state of St. Enda’s and to Pearse’s efforts to raise funds to keep the school solvent. The section also contains some miscellaneous notes by Pearse on education-related subjects. Some of the documents listed below are in either Pearse’s hand or are endorsed with his signature.

The subseries comprises a small collection of material relating to Roger Casement, a humanitarian, diplomat, and revolutionary. Born in Dublin on 1 September 1864, Casement was famous for his reports and activities highlighting human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru. He worked in Africa for commercial interests and later in the British diplomatic service. He was knighted in 1911 for his investigations into colonial atrocities. His consular investigation into crimes in the Congo eventually led him to adopt an Irish republican and radical separatist political outlook. After the outbreak of the First World War, he sought to obtain German military aid for a rebellion in Ireland against British rule. Casement believed that an Irish insurrection would be defeated unless it received substantial assistance from Germany, and when it became clear that adequate military help would not be forthcoming, he decided to travel to Ireland and try to prevent the planned rebellion from taking place. Shortly before the Easter Rising, he landed at Banna Strand in County Kerry. He was quickly arrested by the authorities. Stripped of his knighthood and other honours, he was subsequently convicted and hanged for treason in Pentonville Prison in London on 3 August 1916.

The subseries also includes some material relating to Robert Monteith (1879-1956), a former British army soldier and Irish nationalist. In late 1915 Monteith travelled to Berlin to assist Casement in recruiting an Irish brigade from among Irish prisoners-of-war held in Germany. He accompanied Casement to Ireland in April 1916. Monteith avoided capture and spent six months on the run including a period when he was hidden by Capuchin friars in Rochestown in County Cork. He subsequently escaped to the United States working in disguise as a sailor on a merchant vessel. Montieth returned to Ireland in May 1947. However, his residence in Ireland proved to be a short one. Monteith returned to the United States in 1953 and he died there on 18 February 1956. Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’, was a close acquaintance of Monteith, and the friar seemingly compiled this material for several articles on Casement’s life and career which he published in the periodical.

The subseries comprises a small collection of records relating to various Irish landlord defence associations and related loyalist and unionist political organisations in the late nineteenth century. The collection includes mostly printed circulars, fliers, and ephemera sent to members of these organisations. The goal of these interrelated associations was to defend the rights and interests of landed proprietors in Ireland. The organisations were set up in response to the activities of the Land League, a tenant farmer movement, which had as its primary aim the reform and eventual abolition of landlordism in Ireland.

The collection includes records generated by the Property Defence Association (PDA) which was formed in Dublin in December 1880 to assist landlords targeted by the Land League or by rural agitation in general. Led by James Stopford, 5th Earl of Courtown (1823-1914), the association served writs on tenants, provided (often armed) caretakers for evicted holdings, supplied labourers to boycotted landlords, and bought stock and farms at sheriffs’ sales. The Orange Emergency Committee, established by the loyalist Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, also in December 1880, had similar functions to the Property Defence Association. Both the PDA and Orange Emergency Committee were subscription-based aid organisations. The Irish Landowners' Convention was set up in early 1888 to protect the interests of landowners in the face of agrarian agitation and legislative reforms which enabled tenant proprietorship. James Hamilton , 2nd Duke of Abercorn (1838-1913), was elected its first president and he led the organisation for nearly a decade.

The collection also includes a small number of records relating to the Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union (ILPU), a unionist political organisation, established to oppose the nationalist Home Rule movement. The ILPU was formed in Dublin in May 1885 by a small number of southern businessmen, landowners, and academics. It sought to unite Liberals and Conservatives on a common platform of maintenance of the union between Great Britain and Ireland. The Irish Unionist Alliance was founded in 1891 by ILPU members, which it replaced. The Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA), also known as the Irish Unionist Party, was led for much of its existence by Colonel Edward James Saunderson (1837-1906) and later by William St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton (1856-1942).

Finally, the collection also includes a small number of fliers and printed ephemera relating to by-elections for the constituency of Trinity College (University of Dublin) in 1875 and in 1887. The college constituency was dominated by a Conservative and Unionist electorate. In January 1875, Edward Gibson, later 1st Baron Ashbourne (1837-1913), was elected for the Conservatives to serve as MP for Trinity College, Dublin. Dodgson Hamilton Madden (1840-1928) was elected Conservative MP for the university in the July 1887 by-election.

Internal evidence suggests that this material was originally assembled by John Ribton Garstin (1836-1917), a landlord and unionist, who served as High Sheriff of County Louth from 1880 to 1881. It has however not been ascertained how these records were acquired by Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap., the editor of ‘The Capuchin Annual’.