Dossier 5 - Notebook belonging to Martin Savage, Irish Volunteer

1 p + 13 prints; Manuscript and photographic prints

Notebook belonging to Martin Savage, Irish Volunteer. The annotation on the first page reads: ‘This book belongs to Martin Savage. I [Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap.] got it from him at Richmond Barracks. It contained a list of the names and addresses of all the Volunteers of his company. I tore them out and burned them. Fr. Columbus’. A later note reads: ‘He [Savage] was subsequently killed in the attack on Lord French. Fr. C.’. The notebook also contains thirteen black and white portrait photographs of unidentified individuals and groups. Three of these photographs can be positively identified as Martin Savage. The other photographs may be of his relations. Some of the photographs have a printed company stamp on the reverse: ‘The Franco Art Co., Grafton Studios, 111 Grafton St. … Dublin’.

Hard bound notebook; 11 cm x 7.5 cm; ‘Easons “fastfind” No. 2106’.

Martin Savage (Irish: Máirtín Sabhaois; 1898-19 Dec. 1919), from Ballisodare, County Sligo, was an officer in the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army. As a 17 year old he took part in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and fought with Pearse and Connolly in the GPO. He was captured by the British Army and imprisoned in Richmond Barracks. On 30 April 1916 he was deported to Knutsford Detention Barracks in Cheshire, England along with 200 other captured prisoners. Upon his release Savage returned to Dublin and became a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade. He was well known in republican circles and was acquainted with Dan Breen, Seán Treacy and Seán Hogan. On 19 December 1919 Savage was killed during a gun battle after an ambush on Lord French at Ashtown during the early stages of the War of Independence.