Fenian Rising flag fetches €52,000 at Whyte's auction

MEMBERS OF a Co Limerick family celebrated their good fortune in Dublin on Saturday after a flag they had inherited made €52,000 at auction.

The “unique” green silk flag, made in 1867 to commemorate the Fenian Rising, was the star lot in a sale by the auctioneers Whyte’s featuring Irish historical artefacts. Managing director Ian Whyte said it was probably “the only surviving Fenian flag in private hands”.

Speaking after the sale at the Freemasons’ Hall on Molesworth Street, Dave Cleary (64) from Kilfinane said the flag had belonged to “a fierce man” – his great-grandfather Willie Condon, who was a leading figure in the Fenian Brotherhood and Land League at Anglesboro, Co Limerick, during the 19th century.

He said the flag had been passed down through the generations and that “it was tough enough to part with it”.

His grandmother Hannah Condon Cleary, a commander with Cumann na mBan, had kept the flag “hidden at the time of the Tans” during the War of Independence by wrapping it in a flour sack and burying it in a milk can. His father subsequently “found it and dug it up”.

Mr Cleary thought the price paid was “timid enough”, believed it was “a pity the local council didn’t buy it” and explained that the proceeds of the sale would be shared with his siblings, “three sisters and a brother”.

The family planned to have “a few” celebratory drinks at nearby Buswell’s hotel before the “long old drive” back to Co Limerick.

Whyte’s said the purchaser of the flag was an anonymous, private Irish buyer. The “History, Literature and Collectibles” auction attracted hundreds of people and bidders via telephone and the internet. The items on sale reflected the diversity and complexity of Irish history. Among the more than 500 lots were regalia symbolising British rule in Ireland and mementoes of the 1916 Rising.

A Royal Irish Fusiliers bearskin helmet from the late Victorian era sold for €3,000 (treble its estimate) and shortly afterwards the belt buckle from Pádraig Pearse’s military uniform made €7,500.

A military pass issued to John Kernode, an employee of The Irish Times on May 3rd, 1916, allowing him to “travel at all times between Oxmantown Road and the city” sold for €220.

A batch of documents relating to the Northern Ireland peace process collected between 1993 and 2005 resulted in what Whyte’s described as “fierce bidding”.

The lot sold for €2,700.