Correspondence file relating to Christopher J. Brady who along with Michael J. Molloy and Liam Ó Briain, compositors, were responsible for printing the 1916 Proclamation. The Proclamation was composed in Liberty Hall, the headquarters of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. Liberty Hall was also the location of the printing press, an antiquated Wharfdale Double Crown, used to print Connolly’s ‘The Worker’s Republic’ newspaper. Brady used this press to print the Proclamation on Sunday, 23 April 1916. The file includes a photographic print of Christopher J. Brady and letters mainly regarding requests that he authenticate original copies of the Proclamation. One of the letters (17 June 1934) is from Nellie Gifford-Donnelly to Brady requesting that he and Michael J. Molloy and Liam Ó Briain visit Dr. Kathleen Lynn to authenticate and sign a copy of the 1916 Proclamation in her possession. Both Gifford-Donnelly and Kathleen Lynn were committed nationalists and feminists who had participated in the Rising. Gifford-Donnelly was later instrumental in securing historical documents and objects associated with the Easter Rising. The Proclamation signed by Brady is now on display in the National Museum of Ireland.
Original newspaper clippings relating to the Civil War assembled by the editors of 'The Capuchin Annual'. The file comprises clippings from the 'Cork Examiner' and the 'Evening Echo' and contains reports on hostilities between Free State forces and republicans mainly in Munster. The file includes: • ‘Heavy Firing in Limerick City / Encounter in Clare / Commandant Breen’s Declaration’, 'Cork Examiner', 13 July 1922. • 'Cork Examiner', 15 July 1922. • 'Cork Examiner', 30-31 July 1922. • ‘Cork and Peace / Harry Boland Shot / Cork Coachmakers’ Strike’, 'Evening Echo', 2 Aug. 1922. • ‘Manufacturing Atrocities / Protest by Free State Soldiers’. 'Cork Examiner', 4 Aug. 1922.
Letters to Patrick Pearse from John Merritt, Naval Office, Custom House, New York. The letters refer to Pearse’s efforts to raise funds for St. Enda’s School and to Merrit’s thoughts on the nature of the education system in Ireland. The letter of 20 April 1914 refers to Pearse’s attendance at a meeting in Celtic Park in New York. It reads ‘The unprovoked, senseless, brutal, and cowardly physical assault to which you were subjected at Celtic Park yesterday, within a radius of twenty five feet of me, and in which, I believe, two of your teeth were knocked out, has filled me with disgust at the strange, incomprehensible and fiendish actions of some of my misguided countrymen’. One of the letters is incomplete (the upper portion has been torn away).
Letter from the Royal Insurance Office, to Margaret Pearse, Sandymount Avenue, Sandymount, Dublin, re a policy of life insurance on her late husband (James Pearse) and the amount paid to the National Bank Ltd. on his death. With two manuscript enclosures seemingly re James Pearse’s debts and his account with the National Bank (4 March 1902).
Letters to James Pearse from W.J. Ramsey, Manager, the Progressive Publishing Company, 28 Stonecutter Street, London. The letter of 25 November 1884 encloses a clipping of an advertisement for ‘Socialism a curse / a reply to a Lecture delivered by Edward B. Aveling’ and ‘Is God the First Cause?’ (1883) by ‘Humanitas’ (James Pearse).
Photographic prints annotated on the reverse: ‘J. Pearse / Queen’s Robing Room / House of Lords’. The images appear to show some of the statues of the twenty-six princesses extant in the Queen’s robing room in the House of Lords, London. Pearse made carvings of princesses and robes and crowns for the ‘throne room’ (or the ‘Queen’s robing room’) in the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster.
Copy photographic prints of Roger Casement, with William Gibson, 2nd Baron Ashbourne, and Alice Stopford Green. The photograph was possibly taken at Ardglass in County Down in c.1913.
Two copies of the ‘Speech of Roger Casement from the dock / Executed in Pentonville Prison, August 3rd, 1916.’ (Dublin: published by Fergus O’Connor, 1916).
An account book of the Dublin City & County Board of the Irish Volunteers. The account is with the Munster and Leinster Bank Ltd., Dame Street, Dublin. A manuscript title on the front cover reads ‘Dublin Co. Volunteers / Dublin City & Co. Board / 26 Great Brunswick Street / 2 Dawson Street / Dublin / Treasurer / Frank Fahy’. The entries cover the period from 31 October 1915 to 30 June 1916. Includes references to many transactions on the account made by Philip Bernard Joseph Cosgrave (1884-1923), and to entries made by ‘Byrne’, ‘Hanarhan’, 'Hannigan', and others.
Expenses account of James Joseph O’Kelly. An accompanying note is endorsed ‘account for arms / £206 / expenses to Dublin’. Both the note and the one-page expenses account are endorsed ‘EE 7205’. The expenses relate to O’Kelly’s travel from France to Dublin.