A document said to be the surrender order written by Pádraig Pearse after the 1916 Easter Rising has emerged for sale at auction.
The hand-written document, which is being put up for sale by its unnamed owner, says the Provisional Government has decided on an unconditional surrender and instructs supporters to lay down arms.
Prof Eunan O'Halpin, professor of contemporary Irish history at Trinity College Dublin, said last night he did not know if such a document had existed or if there was only one copy. "However, if it is genuine and is the only copy written in Pádraig Pearse's own hand-writing, then it would be significant," he said.
It would, of course, depend very much on the provenance and this would presumably be checked, he said. It was a good sign that it was handwritten.
Prof O'Halpin said that if it was genuine, then it would be significant for symbolic reasons and for the fact of what it was, rather than the content as he would not think there would be any revelations there.
Mr Michael Kenny, keeper of the arts and industrial division of the National Museum, said if the document was what was claimed, then it was of "major, major importance".
"If it is the document, then it is one of the major documents of the rebellion. The Proclamation and the surrender document which brought the rebellion to a close were the two most important," he said.
Experts from State institutions, including the National Museum, will be inspecting the document over the coming weeks to verify its authenticity. If they are happy, it is expected they will bid for it at the public auction at the end of May.
Mr Stuart Cole of James Adam, the auctioneers, said it was the actual surrender document of Pádraig Pearse in 1916 asking all the officers and men to surrender unconditionally. It was written in his own hand in Arbour Hill prison after he surrendered at the GPO and awaited execution.
"It is a very important document. There are a limited number of documents that Pádraig Pearse was allowed to write in Arbour Hill."
The surrender document was taken around to other areas by two Capuchin monks to show to people and tell them to surrender, he said.
The auctioneers now have the task of valuing the document. "Trying to put a value on it will be difficult as we have nothing to compare it with," Mr Cole said.
James Adam sold an original copy of the Proclamation in recent times. They gave it a value of between €100,000 and €150,000 but it sold for €390,000.
"This Pádraig Pearse document is handwritten and the only one," Mr Cole said.
He added: "We have done research to ascertain the document's provenance and genuineness. We are happy with it. The document has an unbroken line of provenance."