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Some Irish Capuchins displayed a noticeable sympathy with the republican interest during the Civil War. The Church Street community maintained close ties with various republicans including Frank Gallagher who carried out propaganda work on various Anti-Treaty bulletins, newsletters and publications. Gallagher worked alongside Erskine Childers (who was also on good terms with some Capuchin friars) on the republican publicity staff. Both men sided with Éamon de Valera in the Treaty debates. Gallagher and Robert Brennan were significant contributors to the 'Daily Bulletin' which was produced at this time (See CA IR/1/8/3/8). As a consequence, most of the tracts and publicity material obtained by the Capuchins reflected a rigidity to the Sinn Féin version of the conflict and demonstrated an implacable hostility to the Treaty and its supporters.

A pamphlet in the republican interest written under the pseudonym of ‘Columban na Banban’. The pamphlet urges priests to adhere to the Republic and to defy their Bishop’s commands: ‘The Republican Police Force is not disbanded. … Mulcahy will surrender as surely as Macready surrendered. Doubtless when all arguments are used the Bishops will remain your great stumbling block’. (p. 11).

A pamphlet relating to the trial and execution of Erskine Childers (1870-1922) who was convicted by a Free State military court on charges of illegally possessing a firearm and sentenced to death. While his appeal against the sentence was still pending, Childers was executed by firing squad at the Beggar’s Bush Barracks in Dublin on 24 Nov. 1922. The tract includes an elegy on Erskine Childers by Padraig de Brún. Published in London by Leslie Smith & Co., printers.