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James Pearse was born in London on 8 December 1839. A gifted sculptor, he came to Ireland in about 1860. In the early 1870s he formed a partnership with Patrick J. O’Neill specialising in monumental works which had its workshop on Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street) in Dublin. This partnership was dissolved in about 1878. Between 1880 and 1891 Pearse worked in partnership with his foreman Edward Sharp (who was also from England). Following the dissolution of this partnership, Pearse ran his own monumental sculpture business in the Irish capital. Pearse married twice. By his second wife, Margaret Brady, whom he married in October 1877, he had two daughters and two sons. Pearse was largely self-educated. As a bibliophile, he was an avid reader and embraced rationalist thinking and scientific method. Although Pearse was nominally a Catholic (he converted to the religion in about 1869), evidence suggests that he was an atheist. He was an avid supporter of the radical English politician and atheist propagandist Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) and wrote several tracts for various secularist publications under the pseudonym ‘Humanitas’. Influenced by the strongly nationalist opinions of his wife, Pearse was also a supporter of Irish Home Rule. He died suddenly on 5 September 1900 in Birmingham while on a visit to relations. After his death, the family business was carried on for a few years under the name James Pearse & Sons by his younger son, the sculptor William Pearse (1881-1916), with some help from his elder son, Patrick Pearse (1879-1916). Both were executed for their part in the 1916 Rising. The collection includes correspondence (including letters to James Pearse from Charles Bradlaugh, Annie Besant and other prominent secularist and atheist activists) and financial and photographic records relating to his monumental sculpture business.

Margaret Mary Pearse was a teacher, Irish language activist, and politician. She was born in Dublin on 4 August 1878, the eldest child of James Pearse and Margaret Pearse (née Brady). Margaret Mary worked with her brothers Patrick and William to found St. Enda’s School (Scoil Éanna) in Cullenswood House in Ranelagh, Dublin, in 1908. Following the deaths of her brothers in 1916, she took over the management of the school. Scoil Éanna continued until 1935 when financial troubles forced its closure. In public life, she was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Dublin County constituency at the 1933 general election. She subsequently served as a senator in Seanad Éireann (the upper house of the of the Oireachtas) from 1938 to 1968. Margaret Mary Pearse shared her brother’s cultural and political vision for Ireland and devoted much of her life to upholding Patrick’s legacy. She lived out her life in St. Enda’s, but was never completely free from financial difficulties. She died on 7 November 1968 and, following the wishes of her mother, bequeathed Scoil Éanna to the Irish state. The collection comprises mostly personal papers including correspondence, photographs, and ephemera. Many of the records relate to her role in the management of Scoil Éanna, her interest in education, and to her efforts to perpetuate the memory of the role played by her family in the revolutionary period.

Margaret Brady was born in Dublin on 12 February 1857. She worked in a stationer’s shop until she married James Pearse, an English stonemason and sculptor, on 24 October 1877. The couple had four children: Margaret Mary, Patrick, William, and Mary Brigid. Of firmly held nationalist opinions, Margaret imbued her children with similar beliefs. In 1908 she joined her sons at Scoil Éanna, taking charge of domestic arrangements at the school. Margaret supported her sons’ political beliefs. Following their executions in 1916, she expressed her wish to maintain their legacy and became involved in political life. Elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin TD in 1921, she strongly opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and left the Dáil following its ratification. She would later join Fianna Fáil as a founding member in 1926. She died on 22 April 1932, at the age of 75, and was honoured with a state funeral. The collection includes mostly personal correspondence, photographs, nationalist ephemera, and material relating to her role in the management of St. Enda’s School.

A collection of papers relating to Patrick Pearse (1879-1916), a barrister, writer, and educationalist. He was born in Dublin on 10 November 1879, the elder son and the second of four children of James Pearse, a sculptor, and his second wife, Margaret. As a political revolutionary, Pearse rose to prominence as one of the key figures in the Easter Rising of 1916. He was chosen as the president of the republic which the rebels proclaimed during the insurrection. Pearse was executed in Kilmainham Jail on 3 May 1916. The collection comprises mostly personal papers including correspondence, legal records, writings, and some printed works. Much of the material relates to Scoil Éanna, the Gaelic school founded by Pearse in Dublin in 1908. Many of the letters in the collection relate to Pearse’s fundraising trip to the United States from March to June 1914. The purpose of this visit was to raise funds for Scoil Éanna and many of the letters are from potential donors and Irish Americans sympathetic to Pearse’s cultural nationalism. Other papers relate to the routine management of the school and to lesser extent Pearse’s involvement with the Irish Volunteers. From the latter perspective, a record and attendance book of the Irish Volunteers in Dublin covering the months leading up to 1916 Rising, is clearly a significant document in the collection. Other records refer to the precarious financial state of Scoil Éanna and to Pearse’s efforts to keep the school solvent. Some notes by Pearse on mainly education-related subjects are also extant in the collection. Several documents in the collection are either in Pearse’s hand or are endorsed with his signature.

William Pearse was born in Great Brunswick Street in Dublin on 11 November 1881. He was the younger brother of Patrick Pearse, the writer, educationalist, and revolutionary. He joined the family sculpting business and ran it following the death of his father James Pearse in 1900. William attended classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art between 1897 and 1910 and he seemed destined to embark upon a career as an artist. He later became a full-time art teacher at Scoil Éanna, the Gaelic school founded by his brother in 1908. Although William was more of an artist than a revolutionary, he shared his brother’s interest in the Irish language and Gaelic culture. Like his elder brother, William was also a founding member of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. During the Easter Rising he served as a captain on the headquarters staff and stood alongside his brother as he read the Proclamation of Independence. William Pearse was one of the last, if not the last person, to leave the General Post Office after the evacuation order was given. Following the surrender, he was court-martialled and, contrary to expectations, executed in Kilmainham Jail (4 May 1916). William Pearse was the only one of the executed leaders to plead guilty, though he exercised no real authority during the rebellion and his leadership role was said to be minimal.