Govt may buy Padraig Pearse surrender note
The Government could purchase the hand-written surrender note from the revolutionary icon Padraig Pearse which goes under the hammer this week, it emerged today.
Stuart Cole of James Adam and Sons auctioneers said several state organisations had viewed the historic letter, which was penned by Pearse from his prison cell days before his execution by firing squad in 1916.
Mr Cole said: “They (state bodies) won’t be telling us whether they are interested or not, certainly it has been seen by all the sorts of relevant bodies that you would expect.
“People like the National Library would probably be the best place for that kind of thing to be stored and kept. It would probably be most suitable to their collection.”
The auctioneers have estimated that the letter dated April 30, 1916 will fetch around €80,000 at the Dublin auction on Wednesday night.
Mr Cole said the family would like the surrender note to be purchased by the state.
He said: “I think they just feel it has been sitting stored away for long enough. I think the family would like it to be bought by the state. They would certainly like it to stay in Ireland.”
The expert confirmed it had been stored carefully for the last 80 years from April 30, 1916, when a Capuchin priest, Fr Columbus, collected the letter from Pearse’s cell in Arbour Hill Prison.
Mr Cole added: “It has been in the one family. It has had a continuous line of providence from the day it was taken around to Thomas Street and shown to troops there. It has literally had a continuous line of providence from then to now.”
The letter attracted interest from overseas, including American collectors, when it was displayed in a Bond Street auction room in London and in Belfast over the last few weeks.
Mr Cole said: “It is one of those documents that is very emotive. There would be people who would never come to an auction who would come in and say: 'I want that piece of history'.
“Some people will come in just because they don’t want to see it leaving the country.”
Pearse wrote the note just days before he was executed by firing squad on May 3, 1916, along with 14 other rebels.
The letter reads: “In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms.
"P.H. Pearse. Dublin 30th April 1916.”
Pearse came to the fore as a revolutionary in the early 20th century with calls for a blood sacrifice to rid Ireland of British rule.
Fr Columbus brought the hand-written note to forces in the Four Courts refusing to give up the fight a week after the Proclamation was read on the steps of the GPO.
On reading the letter Captain Holohan, who was in charge of the Four Courts Command, eased hostilities and surrendered.
Other surrender notes, which are now in state hands, were typed up for Pearse to sign, and one other hand-written letter also exists.
Mr Cole said: “I wouldn’t like to see it leaving the country because I think it is a very, very important historical document from our very recent and sort of troubled past, and I think it is also very poignant.
“It is probably one of the very last things that Pearse wrote. It is certainly among those last couple of documents that he wrote before he was executed.”
An original copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic recently went for a record price of €390,000 at auction.
Mr Cole said: “I think that is a reflection of how strongly people feel about historical documents.”
The auction in Dublin on Wednesday night is expected to attract significant interest, with the prestigious McClelland art collection also going under the hammer.
