A unique collection of War of Independence letters were sold at auction in Cork this week, despite calls for the collection to be kept in public ownership.
The Keyes McDonnell collection of family letters were one of the most complete sources of historical documentation relating to the War of Independence in the West Cork region.
Among the documents was a letter, written by a Cork lord mayor who died while on hunger strike in a British jail.
In advance of Tuesday’s auction Terence MacSwiney’s letter was sold for an undisclosed sum in Bandon, West Cork.
According to the Irish Examiner, he penned the letter while he was interred at Richmond Barracks after the 1916 Easter Rising. He wrote the letter to Keyes McDonnell family to thank them for their support.
A letter from Lord Asquith relating to the Easter Rising was sold to a Dublin buyer for €340.
The auction also featured various Republican memorabilia including a letter from Lady Beaverbrook relating to the Rising.
The Keyes McDonnell family, from Castlelack near Bandon, played a significant role in the Irish struggle for independence.
In the days leading up to the auction Mayor of Bandon Cllr Gillian Coughlan (FF) urged the State to buy the items, to ensure the collection remained in the public domain.
"These papers are a vital insight into the struggle for independence almost 100 years ago," she said.
"The story of the Keyes McDonnell family is recorded in the book There is a Bridge in Bandon — a unique record of that time.
"This documentation is a vital source of that history."
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.DanOLoingsigh | Oct 24, 2012, 05:24 PM EDT
No he didn't 'pen the letter while he was interred at Richmond Barracks'...another grave error!!
ancavker | Oct 22, 2012, 04:51 PM EDT
Of course the Irish government did not buy them!! Any other country's goverment would have, but not the sorry excuse for a government over there.
IrelandNorth | Oct 22, 2012, 06:15 AM EDT
The silk purse of the War of Independence was made into a sows ear by the Anglo-Irish Treaty/Government of Ireland Act 1920, with not a little help from a ruthlessly ambitious unionist from south Dublin in Leinster/eastern Ireland - in cahoots with a prevaricating British liberal government of the day. A man who was rewarded for his extra-constitutional paramilitarism in protecting a dodgy union with the Attorney Generalship of England & Wales. If only they had listened more attentively to pro-Home Rule Co Antrim Presbyterian minister Rev J B Armour in 1913, none of this would have happened. (See O'Brien, Bill and J Keegan (ed). THE ALTERNATIVE ULSTER COVENANT: A Tribute to the Role of Progressive Protestantism in Irish History. Dublin (2012). Self published pamphlet). Alas, a 3/4 loaf was better than no bread, particularly with the promise of its crust.
aloistmartin | Oct 21, 2012, 06:39 PM EDT
There are Those in Ireland, who would like to see The Revolution and Civil War, as a kind of Union Agreement ? To These, The Idea`s of Irish Heritage and Nationality, are only so many Episodes of Antiques Roadshow ! Get Yours, I. Got Mine, and all that ?
GordonHide | Oct 21, 2012, 07:17 AM EDT
As long as the content is in the public domain the only thing lost is a few bits of paper. Silly idolatry raises its head even in secular matters. This reminds me of British lottery money being used to buy the Churchill papers. - several million pounds for a pile of early twentieth century stationery.
curtisjohnson | Oct 20, 2012, 10:24 PM EDT
No troll, the nationalists' position was not materially weakened when Collins negotiated the peace and they obtained much more than the british terror state was willing to give voluntarily. That said, I do not discount that the british nation mugging machine would have unleashed all of the weapons of modern warfare at their disposal, including chemical weapons (not to mention torture and rape), against non-combatants to prevent the self determination of the indigenous Irish.
Towngate | Oct 20, 2012, 07:15 PM EDT
Seanmór: What happened, you ask.No mystery! ~ They lost; settled for 'half a loaf' and then made a pigs ear out of it. So sad!
kubs | Oct 20, 2012, 03:17 PM EDT
Hopefully, the new, private owners of these precious documents will post them on a historical site on the internet for the benefit of all .
cillowen | Oct 20, 2012, 10:40 AM EDT
what independence ?
Seanmor | Oct 20, 2012, 09:42 AM EDT
Few, if any, Irish people who fought in the Anglo-Irish War would have supported permanent Partition, nor would they have approved of the South's surrendering much of it's sovereignty to the E.U. The letters those patriots wrote probably suggest that their heroic struggle was to win full independence for all of Ireland, an tír uile agus gach roinn di. Whatever happened to this noble ideal?