THE 1916 PROCLAMATION: THE GPO COPY POBLACHT NA H EIREANN.

THE 1916 PROCLAMATION: THE GPO COPY POBLACHT NA H EIREANN. The Provisional Government of the IRISH REPUBLIC to the PEOPLE OF IRELAND. Irishmen and Irishwomen .. An original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, believed to be the copy which hung in the General Post Office in Dublin during the 1916 Rising, with guaranteed provenance to Dr. James Ryan, Medical Officer to the GPO Garrison, later a Fianna Fail Minister. (1) Dimensions: 30 ins x 20 ¼ ins, length of line 18 3/8 ins, as required, with the various typographical peculiarities identified by Bouch, evidently printed in two portions, the lower portion slightly at an angle. On the usual greyish paper, with two central oval holes in the paper, 2 ins x 1 in and 1 ½ in x 1 in approx, a third smaller hole upper left, missing segments of type supplied in manuscript. These holes appear consistent with the document being fixed to a wall or surface and pulled away. Frayed at top with minor loss to the first line of type, vertical and horizontal folds with some fraying and partial loss to a few letters, otherwise generally a good copy of this rare and fragile document. Provenance: Given by Dr. James Ryan to his brothers' family home, in Wexford, and understood by family tradition to be a copy which Dr. Ryan removed from the GPO during or immediately before its evacuation in 1916; later sold privately by Michael Ryan (nephew of Dr. James Ryan) to the present vendor in a transaction facilitated and administered by Fonsie Mealy, Auctioneer. We are thus in a position to guarantee this provenance, for which there is documentary evidence in our possession (which we can discuss with intending purchasers on a confidential basis if desired). As is now well known, the Proclamation was printed in Liberty Hall on Sunday 23 April 1916 by printers appointed by James Connolly, under an armed guard of the Irish Citizen Army. Because of a shortage of type, it was necessary to compose the document in two portions and to print it in two passes, with each sheet passing through the machine twice. The gap between the two sections (after 'among the nations') varies slightly from one copy to another. The print order was 2,500 copies, but the vast majority of these appear to have perished in the fires and bombardments of Easter Week. Our best estimate is that up to 50 original copies now survive, mostly in institutional collections from which they are unlikely to emerge. A very few copies are personally linked to participants in the Rising - one signed by Sean T. O'Kelly, now in Leinster House, and one or two more - but this may be the only copy which can be identified with reasonable probability as being in the GPO itself throughout the week of the Rising. James Ryan (1891 - 1970), from Taghmon in Co. Wexford, was a final year medical student in 1916 and a member of the Irish Volunteers. He was appointed medical officer to the GPO garrison, and in that capacity he assisted in carrying the wounded James Connolly from the burning building. Before doing so it appears that he removed the present document from its place in the GPO, folded it quickly and stuffed it in a pocket or in his shirt. After the Rising he was arrested and interned in England and Wales, but was released in time to sit his final medical examinations in 1917. In the 1918 United Kingdom general election he was elected Sinn Fein MP for Wexford South, sat in the First Dail, and later became Dail TD for Wexford, holding his seat for 47 years. A close colleague of Eamon De Valera, he opposed the Treaty, joined Fianna Fail on its foundation, and held senior Ministerial posts including Agriculture (1932-47) and Finance (1957-65). He died in 1970. His papers are mostly in UCD and the National Library. A very desirable copy of this rare document.