Recollections of visits made to Kevin Barry (executed 1 Nov. 1920); to ‘six young heroes hanged at Mountjoy Prison, March 14th 1921’; and to Thomas Traynor (executed 26 Apr. 1921). The recollections refer to visits made by unnamed religious sisters. The transcripts focus on the piety and courage shown by the condemned prisoners. It reads: ‘All the young men were teetotallers and some of them abstained from smoking. We noticed two empty porter bottles in the grate in Flood’s cell. When he saw me looking at them he said “you know our friends can bring us in now anything one asks for. The Black and Tan guards here are decent to us and we ordered in drink for them”’.
Note from C. Burgess [Cathal Brugha], Dublin Castle Hospital, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Franciscan Capuchin Church, Church St. It reads: ‘I should be obliged if you dropped in here any time tomorrow or Friday to hear my confession. As there has been a new regulation made here with regard to the admission of the clergy it might be as well if you brought this card with you’. During the Rising Brugha was severely wounded by a hand grenade, as well as by multiple gunshot wounds, and was initially not considered likely to survive. He recovered over the next year, but was left with a permanent limp.
Letter to Tim Healy from various republican internees asking him intercede in a dispute with prison authorities. The manuscript provides background to the dispute. The letter is in two distinctive hands and is (copy) signed by ‘Michael Staines, Head Leader; James Murphy, leader, no. 1 room; Edward A. Morkan, leader, no. 2 room; R.J. Mulcahy, leader, no. 3 room; Thomas D. Sinnott, Leader no. 4 Room’. The letter reads: ‘Recently the military authorities in charge of the Camp here have adopted such an attitude of consistently vindictive injustice towards us that we are reluctantly compelled to believe that there must be some ulterior motive behind it. … We can do very little to help ourselves, cut off as we are from all the world, and strictly prohibited – officially – from sending out a single complaint’. In September 1917 Healy acted as counsel for the family of the dead Sinn Féin hunger striker Thomas Ashe. He was one of the few King’s Counsel to provide legal services to members of Sinn Féin in various legal proceedings in both Ireland and England after the 1916 Rising. This included acting for those illegally interned in 1916 in Frongoch in North Wales.
Letter from Robert Barton, Mountjoy Gaol, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., stating that ‘prison life is no affliction to me. I much prefer the rest, seclusion and study of a cell to discoursing in public platforms’. He also discusses his reading of economic literature and affirms that he is learning Irish.
Letter from Patrick Holohan, ‘Number: 975, hut 2, Irish Prisoner … Frongoch, North Wales’ to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Church Street, Dublin, referring to the provision of religious services and giving news of conditions and prisoners at the camp. Holohan adds ‘I was glad to hear that you were with Heuston when he died as I was very fond of him. It is delightful to see all our leaders being converted to the Catholic faith’. With cover which has been opened by the censor.
Letter from Liam Mellows, Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, to his mother. Written at 5 a.m., shortly before his execution. It reads: ‘The time is short and much I would like to say must go unsaid. But you will understand in such moments heart speaks to heart. At 3.30 this morning we (Dick Barrett, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey and I) were informed that we were to be “executed as a reprisal”. … I go to join Tone and Emmett, the Fenians, Tom Clarke, Connolly, Pearse, Kevin Barry and Childers. My last thoughts will be on God, and Ireland, and you. …. I had hopes that some day I might rest in some quiet place – beside Grandfather and Grandmother in Castletown (Co. Wexford), not amidst the wordly pomps [sic] of Glasnevin but if it is to be the prison clay, it is all the sweeter for many of our best lie here …’.
Letter from James O’Sullivan prisoner no. q 100, Lewes Prison, declaring that ‘all the men here, look to the Capuchin Fathers, as their especial friends – they found the comrades in times of peril, true friends of the people, the ideal priests’. O’Sullivan adds that ‘Edmund Duggan (my dearest friend), Pierce Beasley, D. O’Callaghan, G. Crofts and Jimmy Brennan, wish to be remembered to you’. James O’Sullivan fought at the General Post Office during the Rising.
Letter from James Joseph Walsh, prisoner no. 899, Mountjoy Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., referring to the gradually improving conditions for prisoners. Walsh also refers to the public who ‘in large numbers still crowd to the gate’ of the prison. He informs Fr. Albert that three prisoners are still deprived of the privilege of a daily visit: ‘Sullivan, Cork; Shaw, Stradbally; and Fleming, Galway’. The letter is written on an official form with regulations governing prisoner regulations printed on first page.
Letter from Henry O’Hanrahan, prisoner no. q. 150, Lewes Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap. and Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap., thanking the Capuchin fathers for their services during the Rising. He also refers to increasing clerical support for the republican cause. O’Hanrahan fought at Jacob’s Biscuit factory during the Rising. The letter reads: ‘Just a short note from an Irish felon to thank you both very much indeed for your many enquiries, for your words, and also for your many kindnesses to my dear mother and sisters. It will indeed be a while till we here, our friends, or Ireland forget what we owe to “Church St[reet]” – of course it did not and does not surprise some of us, even though we had not met some you till a very memorable Sunday. That indeed was a Sunday which we will all remember till we “surrender” to the God of Nations and I wonder what has He in store for our little country. Would we had some of your over here. … on that particular Sunday – the difference – but then in all her struggles religious and otherwise – Ireland’s friends were the [Religious] Orders. Thank God, from all we hear the young men of Maynooth etc. are “making good” and God knows its time. Now I know you are pretty conversant with our life etc. here and perhaps before you read this you will have seen or heard of [Gerard] Crofts who is next for invaliding and as I know you are both such friends and also that you are aware space (even in paper) with us is limited, you will excuse my coupling you in this short note’.
Letter from D. O’Callaghan, prisoner no. q 128, Lewes Prison, to Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., concerning his conditions of imprisonment. He also expresses his joy on hearing that the ‘Gaelic League is doing splendidly and was never stronger’. He later claims that ‘my people are immigrated all over the world not through any fault of their own and not necessary for me to tell you the cause’. He has yet to receive a letter mailed to him from his brother in America.
