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.
Photographic print of Fr. Bernardine Harvey OSFC (1874-1953) in the garden of Holy Trinity Friary in Cork. A manuscript annotation on the reverse reads ‘Snap taken in the garden of Holy Trinity, Cork, by Fr. Alphonsus Lombard OSFC’.
Photographic print of Br. Stanislaus Walsh OSFC (1842-1910), at the corner of Paul Street and Cornmarket Street in Cork. Photographer/Studio: W. V. Morris, Grand Parade, Cork An annotation reads ‘In the old spot – at the old game’. This is probably a reference to questing activity undertaken by Br. Stanislaus.
Copy map showing outline of the medieval St. Lawrence’s Chapel near the South Channel of the River Lee. The chapel is bounded by Webber’s Lane (now Morgan’s Lane) and by the ‘ascertained line of the Old City Wall’. The site was seemingly covered by the recently-demolished former Beamish & Crawford Brewery, Main Street South, Cork. The map was probably copied from a nineteenth-century lease map and has the following key to the coloured areas: ‘Land coloured red leased by Carleton & Mitchell to Francis Cottrell, 1st June 1796. Green and brown leased by Carleton & Mitchell to Francis Cottrell, 1st June 1796. Land coloured green held by Carleton under lease from Corporation dated May 6th 1706. Land coloured brown held by Carleton under lease from Prebendary of Christ Church. Land coloured blue held by Beamish & Crawford, surviving partners of “Beamish, Crawford & Barrett” as shewn on lease [of] Carleton & Mitchell to Cottrell dated 1st June 1796’. With a typescript note by Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC on the history of St. Lawrence’s Church.
A blank notice of affiliation certifying that a branch of the Catholic Boys’ Brigade, known as ‘St. Peter’s Battalion’, has been established in the Parish of St. Peter’s, Belfast. The certificate notes that the battalion has been affiliated to the central organisation at Church Street, Dublin.
Photograph of a religious print commemorating St. Joseph’s League, a precursor to the Dublin Catholic Boys’ Brigade. The picture frame is adorned with rosary beads and a tertiary scapular of the Sisters of Charity.
Document of undertaking of J & EC Ellershaw, regarding property at Prospect, Newtown Castle Byrne, Blackrock, Parish of Monkstown, Barony of Rathdown, County Dublin. When Jane Sophia Brownrigg Pilsworth dies, money may be payable on the named lands.
List and summary of two leases in pencil, written on brittle paper larger than A4. The leases date to 1834 and 1853 respectively and are regarding Blackrock property. Names mentioned include Pilsworth, Burrowes, Burke, Elizabeth Connolly, John Carroll and Elizabeth Brully.
