In the circular Plunkett promoted Sinn Féin’s strategy and declared that ‘the position of the Irish Party during Easter Week was deplorable. The Leader of the Irish Party [John Redmond] accepted the points of view of the government. He speaks like an Englishman intent on maintaining English supremacy, not as an Irishman who believes that his Nation has the rights common to all nations, and the duty to wrest her liberties from foreign control by every means in her power’.
A handbill in favour of Sinn Féin’s W.T. Cosgrave’s campaign for the Kilkenny by-election in 1917. The handbill concludes ‘Cosgrave stands for the same principles which the Bishop of Limerick professed 20 years ago …’. The handbill was printed for the candidate, William T. Cosgrave, by the Kilkenny People Printing Works, James’s St., Kilkenny.
An election handbill quoting a letter from the Most Rev. William J. Archbishop of Dublin criticising the stance of the Irish Parliamentary Party. It reads: ‘For years past I have never had a moment’s doubt that the Irish Home Rule cause in Parliament was being led along a line that could only bring it to disaster. …’. The handbill concludes with a call to vote for W.T. Cosgrave in the Kilkenny by-election.
An autograph book signed by Anti-Treaty IRA prisoners detained in Limerick Jail in early 1923. The text includes patriotic and republican poems and statements composed by the detainees. The volume was compiled by James O’Mahony (Séamus Ó Mathúna) from Mitchelstown in County Cork. O’Mahony joined the Irish Volunteers in September 1917 and was active in the anti-conscription campaign. As an engineering student in University College Cork, he continued his republican activities and by July 1921 held the rank of adjutant of the 6th Battalion of the Cork No. 2 Brigade of the IRA. He participated in several engagements with British forces in Cork during the War of Independence and was appointed the brigade’s principal training officer. He took the Anti-Treaty side during the Civil War and was a member of the republican forces which fought in a large-scale engagement in Kilmallock in County Limerick in August 1922. He was captured by the National Army in December 1922 and was initially confined in Mitchelstown. In early January 1923, he was moved to Limerick Jail and was held there until he escaped on 31 March.
