Finding aid databases

Minute recording the decision of the Executive Council to advise the Governor General to commute to penal servitude for life the death sentences on Annie Walsh and Martin Joyce found guilty of murdering Daniel Walsh, husband of the former, 31 July 1929.

s 5904

Minute

Memorandum circulated by the Department of Justice, 16 May 1929, relating to a proposed assassination of a trial witness by the Irregulars, an event which did not happen. In April 1928 Miss Florence McCarthy, a member of Cumann na mBan was charged with embracery and other offences. Mr Armstrong of Armstrong and Ramsay, Chartered Accountants, gave evidence on the embracery charges and subsequently was informed that his life was in danger. However, due to the `faintheartedness' of one member of the assassination team the death threat on him was removed.

s 5864A

Memorandum

Memorandum issued by the Department of Justice, 7 June 1929, relating to a meeting held under the auspices of the Womens Prisoners' Defence League, 2 June 1929. The meeting was presided over by Maud Gonne McBride who focused on the hardships of prison life. Others speakers included Mrs Despard, Madam Shera [sic] [Czira] (John Brennan). Madam Shera referred to the arrest of Sean McBride for the murder of Kevin O Higgins. She referred to her letter to the `Irish Times' protesting against the speech by Senator Mc Loughlin on the subject while prisoners were awaiting trial. As a result she was not allowed to broadcast on the radio despite having a five day contract to fulfill. 'She said rather than allow her to broadcast her fees for the five days were paid'.

s 5864A

Memorandum

Memorandum issued by the Department of Justice, 24 June 1929, on the subject of Nicholas Egan, recently in prison under the Treasonable Offences Act. The memorandum states that on 18 May the Medical Officer reported that Nicholas Egan was beginning to show early signs of melancholia, that his sister was insane and that the help of a mental specialist was needed. The memorandum details his sister's illness. `As regards Mary Egan sister of Nicholas Egan the Police report that she is at present an inmate of a private Mental Home in Dublin and has been there for the past six months. She suffers from Goitre and worries a great deal over the disfigurement. She is supposed to be in Dublin for treatment for a nervous breakdown and the intimate friends of the Egan family are unaware that she is in a Mental Home'.

s 5864A

Memorandum

Memorandum issued by the Department of the President, 12 November 1929, relating to a conference held at Wynn's Hotel, Dublin, on 3 November 1929, under the auspices of Comhairle na Poblachta. The names of delegates who attended the conference are listed, for example, Miss French Mullen [sic], Madame McBrien, Eileen Tubbert, Ethna Coyle and Mary MacSwiney.

s 5864A

Memorandum

Typed text of pamphlet issued by Cumann na mBan entitled `England's Latest Victims', referring to hunger strikers in India, no date. `As India depends on her army to deliver her from British rule so Ireland depends on the Irish Republican Army to overthrow the two British imposed governments at present operating by force'.

Anti-State Activities, April 1929-October 1931

politics; republicanism

Memorandum on the case of Maud Gonne McBride sent by the Department of Justice to the Secretary, Executive Council, 2 December 1929. The memorandum states that Maud Gonne McBride was indicted at the Central Criminal Court on the charge of uttering a seditious speech alleging that the Juries Protection Bill was initiated not to protect jurors but to indefinitely imprison the political opponents of the Free State. The memorandum indicates that she was acquitted. Attached to the memorandum is a copy of the Judge's charge to the Jury.

s 5864A

Memorandum

Memorandum entitled `Revolutionary Organisations' issued by the Department of the President, 5 April 1930. The memorandum has `been compiled with a view to showing that the extremist movement in this country is a strange mixture of political revolutionaries and social revolutionaries … It is also of interest to note that much the same people appear to be behind several organisations. Mrs. Maude Gonne being as ubiquitous as it is possible to be'. The organisations dealt with are Friends of Soviet Russia, Irish Communist Party, Irish Labour Defence League, Women Prisoners' Defence League, Anti-Imperialist League, Workers Union of Ireland, Irish National Unemployed Movement, Comhairle na Poblachta, Cumann na mBan, Clann na nGaedheal, Prisoners Dependants Organisation, Irish Working Farming Committee, Sinn Fein, Fianna Éireann, Workers Revolutionary Party in Ireland. Of the Prisoners' Dependants' Organisation, for example, the memorandum states that it is composed of `active members of Cumann na mBan and Sinn Fein and has for its objects the welfare of dependants of members of the Irregulars undergoing imprisonment'. It is, the memorandum states, `distinct from the Women Prisoners' Defence League and is composed of a more dangerous element'. The Committee members are, Mrs Dowling, nee Sheila Bowen, Mrs Thomas Merrigan, Miss Eileen Barry, Miss Nora O Keefe, Miss Maggie Skinnider, Miss A O Farrelly.

s 5864A

Memorandum

Report of a meeting held at the Mansion House on 24 September 1930 under the auspices of the Anti-Imperialist League circulated by the Department of Justice, 29 September 1930. Amongst the speakers were Mrs Sheehy Skeffington and Helena Molony while Mrs Despard and Maud Gonne McBride were on the platform. The speakers compared the struggle in India with that in Ireland and spoke of co-operation on a united front to destroy the British Empire. At the end of the meeting cheers were raised for India and for the Workers Revolutionary Party of Ireland. All then stood to attention while the Red Flag was sung.

s 5864A

Report

Report, issued by the Department of Justice, of a meeting of the Women Prisoners' Defence League held at Gloucester Street Extension, 19 October 1930. Amongst the speakers were Madame Gonne McBride, Mrs Despard and Miss O Daly. `Mrs Despard's speech was almost inaudible, but it referred principally to Russia, and she advised those present to join an association called Friends of Soviet Russia. They could do this at 32 Lower Abbey Street between 3 and 5 p.m. any evening. Miss O Daly made a rambling disjointed speech almost entirely confined to abuse of the C.I.D. and the Dail'.

s 5864A

Report