Heavens to Betsy
04-16-2007, 10:46 PM
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2419707.ece
Michael Collins' love life and the final written words of Patrick Pearse are to feature in a major auction of Irish historical memorabilia in Dublin.
A letter written by Pearse hours before he was executed for his part in the 1916 Rising, plus correspondence on the IRA leader Collins, are to go under the hammer.
The artefacts are among 600 lots linked to Ireland's struggle for independence due for auction in two weeks.
The Pearse letter is expected to fetch up to £68,000, while a batch of 14 letters on Collins' love life could reach £13,500 in the April 17 sale.
The organisers say the correspondence on Collins, by contemporary Moya Llewelyn Davies, contains previously undocumented and controversial material about the rebel leader's relationships with Kitty Kiernan and Lady Lavery.
Collins was linked to Kitty Kiernan before he was shot dead by rival republicans, but the letters also deal with allegations of an affair with Lady Lavery.
"The Llewelyn Davies diaries equate to a modern day gossip column, that salaciously claim Kitty Kiernan was a 'heavy drinker, plain and vulgar', with Collins believing her to be 'brainless'," said Fonsie Mealy, of Mealy Auctioneers, joint co-ordinators of the sale.
"She also doubts if Lady Lavery had that relationship, with Collins, saying she 'only looked well from a distance'."
Pearse's letter is addressed to the Commander of British forces in Ireland at the time of the 1916 Easter Rising and leaves instructions for Pearse's personal effects, including seven pounds in cash taken at his arrest, to be handed to his mother or sister.
Never seen in public before, the letter is one of only three handwritten and signed by Pearse from his condemned cell in Kilmainham Prison on May 2, 1916, as he prepared to be executed for his part in the Rising that set the scene for the War of Independence in Ireland.
According to a poster I saw in college today Ogra Sinn Fein are organising a protest against this selling off of our history.
I'm not totally sure if letters about Collins' love life are enough to get me all Indiana Jones 'it belongs in a museum' style.
Michael Collins' love life and the final written words of Patrick Pearse are to feature in a major auction of Irish historical memorabilia in Dublin.
A letter written by Pearse hours before he was executed for his part in the 1916 Rising, plus correspondence on the IRA leader Collins, are to go under the hammer.
The artefacts are among 600 lots linked to Ireland's struggle for independence due for auction in two weeks.
The Pearse letter is expected to fetch up to £68,000, while a batch of 14 letters on Collins' love life could reach £13,500 in the April 17 sale.
The organisers say the correspondence on Collins, by contemporary Moya Llewelyn Davies, contains previously undocumented and controversial material about the rebel leader's relationships with Kitty Kiernan and Lady Lavery.
Collins was linked to Kitty Kiernan before he was shot dead by rival republicans, but the letters also deal with allegations of an affair with Lady Lavery.
"The Llewelyn Davies diaries equate to a modern day gossip column, that salaciously claim Kitty Kiernan was a 'heavy drinker, plain and vulgar', with Collins believing her to be 'brainless'," said Fonsie Mealy, of Mealy Auctioneers, joint co-ordinators of the sale.
"She also doubts if Lady Lavery had that relationship, with Collins, saying she 'only looked well from a distance'."
Pearse's letter is addressed to the Commander of British forces in Ireland at the time of the 1916 Easter Rising and leaves instructions for Pearse's personal effects, including seven pounds in cash taken at his arrest, to be handed to his mother or sister.
Never seen in public before, the letter is one of only three handwritten and signed by Pearse from his condemned cell in Kilmainham Prison on May 2, 1916, as he prepared to be executed for his part in the Rising that set the scene for the War of Independence in Ireland.
According to a poster I saw in college today Ogra Sinn Fein are organising a protest against this selling off of our history.
I'm not totally sure if letters about Collins' love life are enough to get me all Indiana Jones 'it belongs in a museum' style.