Cowen urges buyer to make Pearse letter available to State
Mr Cowen told the Dáil that he was unable to say if the Government had bid for the document at James Adam salesrooms in Dublin on Wednesday night.
“I only heard this morning that this historic document was sold for €700,000 yesterday. I can only hope that the buyer would be a person or institution who would be able perhaps to make it available for our own archives or artefacts for the future.
“I don’t who it is. It was a private auction and it was anonymously purchased.”
Mr Cowen said he wasn’t in a position to say if the State had bid for the letter.
“I’m not aware of that. You’ll have to ask others.”
Mr Cowen was deputising for the Taoiseach during the order of business and responding to a question by Labour TD Joe Costello.
The Pearse document, dated April 30, 1916, had been given a guide price of about €80,000.
Several State organisations had viewed the historic letter, which was penned by the republican icon from his prison cell days before his execution by firing squad after the Easter Rising.
The letter had been stored carefully by a private family for the past 80 years since a Capuchin priest, Fr Columbus, collected it from Pearse’s cell in Dublin’s Arbour Hill Prison.
An original copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic recently went for a record €390,000 at the same Adam salesrooms in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green.
Pearse wrote the note before he was executed with 14 other rebels captured in the battle to overthrow British rule.
The National Heritage Conservation Group, which had unsuccessfully lobbied the state to purchase the letter on behalf of the National Museum, made several bids for the document but was forced to retire at €95,000. The National Museum said it already has copies of two similar surrender notes.
The letter reads: “In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms. P.H. Pearse. Dublin 30th April 1916.”
Pearse came to the fore as a revolutionary in the early 20th century with calls for a blood sacrifice to rid Ireland of British rule.
Fr Columbus brought the handwritten note to forces in the Four Courts who had refused to give up the fight a week after the Proclamation was read on the steps of the GPO. On reading the letter Captain Gary Holohan, who was in charge of the Four Courts Command, eased hostilities.
Other surrender notes, now in State hands, were typed up for Pearse to sign and one other handwritten letter also exists.
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