The final instructions of Pádraig Pearse, the leader of the 1916 Rising, handwritten and signed in a letter just hours before his death, could fetch up to €100,000 when it is auctioned at Adam's and Mealy's "Independence" sale on Tuesday, April 17th.
Pearse's letter, addressed to General Maxwell, Commander of the British Forces in Ireland, is one of only three handwritten and signed by Pearse from his condemned cell in Kilmainham Prison on May 2nd, 1916, just hours before his execution.
It asks the general to see that three statements relating to Pearse's business and personal affairs and four of his poems be handed to his mother or sister, together with some £7 in cash and other personal effects taken from him after his arrest.
The Pearse letter will be auctioned alongside other important documents, medals, militaria and collectables that track Ireland's history from the Battle of the Boyne to the establishment of the Irish Constitution.
Significant pieces include 14 letters by Moya Llewelyn Davies (€15,000-€20,000 estimate) containing previously undocumented and controversial material about Michael Collins, Kitty Kiernan and Lady Lavery, and a rare 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, estimated at €100,000-€150,000).
The Llewlyn Davies diaries claim Kitty Kiernan was a "heavy drinker, plain and vulgar" whom Collins thought "brainless". She also doubts whether Lady Lavery had "that relationship" with Collins, saying she "only looked well from a distance".
A Citizen Army Mobilisation Order, signed by James Connolly, ordering "a full mobilisation . . . on Sunday at 11am" is also being offered for sale and it could be the very one issued for the Easter Week Rising (€30,000-50,000).
The sale will be held in two parts at James Adam Salerooms, St Stephen's Green, Dublin.