Sale is a genuine historic occasion

Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers in Dublin has something for everyone next Tuesday — but particularly for the collector of historic items and documents.

One of the headline items in the sale is a collection of buttons said to have been in Michael Collins’s tunic on the day of his assassination at Béal na mBláth. They include a verification note from his nephew, (see above).

With everything from Co Kildare’s first All Ireland medal — dating from 1905; a rare Celtic design binding of the Annals of the Four Masters; the final Truce documents of 1922; letters detailing the love story between Lady Lavery and Kevin O’Higgins and an original Blue Shirt flag to some JFK memorabilia, it should draw considerable interest.

Viewing at the Clyde Court Hotel, Dublin 4 is from 1.30pm to 7 pm tomorrow (Sun Jul 21) and from 10.30am to 7.30pm on Monday. The sale, entitled A Gathering of All Things Irish, offers a range of historical, literary, sporting and ephemeral items.

A bronze medal from the Cork Industrial Exhibition of 1883 complete with the Coat of Arms of the city is estimated at €200-€300; a military tribunal file for the attack on Kildorrery Garda Station in North Cork in June of 1935 is estimated at €300-€400 and a series of nine original telefaxes sent by Reuters and received at RTÉ detailing the shooting and death of President Kennedy in November 1963 has an estimate of €2,000-€3,000.

There is an original unpublished story by Padraig Pearse, c1914 in his own hand entitled The Fianna of Fionn with an estimate of €3,500-€5,000. There will be local interest in a 1927 file from Doneraile Golf Club and international interest in a 1910 Art and Crafts Dublin Freedom Box. The sale is at 10.30am.