Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Padraig Pearse Surrender Letter

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Padraig Pearse Surrender Letter

    Pearse letter sold for £500,000



    A letter of surrender signed by Irish rebel Padraig Pearse at the end of the 1916 uprising has sold for almost £500,000 at a Dublin auction.

    The letter was written by Pearse from his prison cell on 30 April, 1916, days before his execution by firing squad after the failed Easter Rising.

    It had been anticipated it would sell for about £55,000 by auctioneers James Adam and Sons.

    The new owner of the letter has not been revealed.

    The letter had been stored by an anonymous family for the past 80 years after a Capuchin priest, Father Columbus, collected it from Pearse's cell in Dublin's Arbour Hill Prison.

    Several state organisations had viewed the letter and it had attracted interest from overseas, including American collectors, when it was displayed in a Bond Street auction room in London and in Belfast over the past few weeks.

    Anonymous bidder

    A spokesman for the auctioneers said: "There was huge interest and it exceeded its guide price incredibly. It finally went to an anonymous bidder."

    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 was later executed with 14 other rebels captured in the battle to overthrow British rule in Ireland.

    Fr Columbus brought the hand-written note to rebel forces in the Four Courts who had refused to give up the fight.

    On reading the letter, Captain Gary Holohan, who was in charge of the Four Courts command, eased hostilities and surrendered.

    An original copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic was recently sold for £270,000 at the same salesrooms in Dublin's St Stephen's Green.

    "When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."


    Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperor (161 to 180 A.D.)

  • #2
    the amazing thing about all this is the original typewritten surrender document signed by PP and Maxwell ( i think ) is in the imperial museum, surely our neighours should give it back, i was in the imprerial war museum and there was no we beat the paddy's display
    maybe we should lok for it back
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere***
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Comment


    • #3
      And while they are at it,maybe they'll give us the six counties also...


      Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

      Comment


      • #4
        now now.
        It is only by contemplation of the incompetent that we can appreciate the difficulties and accomplishments of the competent.

        Comment


        • #5
          Why would he write a surrender note from his prison cell? I thought that it was supposed to have been an instruction to the rest of the rebels to jack it in, which would have been pretty pointless when they were all on their way to the firing squad or Frognoch.
          sigpic
          Say NO to violence against Women

          Originally posted by hedgehog
          My favourite moment was when the
          Originally posted by hedgehog
          red headed old dear got a smack on her ginger head

          Comment


          • #6
            Maybe he was being funny. Surrenders to the British moments before they shoot him.

            Also he may have tried to sneek the surrender letter out, get it to an irish paper and claim that the rebels had surrendered but the british forces pressed on the attack.

            Try to win the peoples hearts and minds. Or course the executions did that.
            It is only by contemplation of the incompetent that we can appreciate the difficulties and accomplishments of the competent.

            Comment


            • #7
              It was an order that he sent to other rebels in Dublin who wouldn't surrender (ie: De Valera) until they had got the order from their Commanding Officer. I don't think he wrote an actual "surrender letter" but surrendered in person to General Lowe.

              Comment

              Working...
              X