MacSwiney letter snapped up by Cork Archives

A previously unknown letter written by a Cork lord mayor who died on hunger strike in a British jail has been sold to the Cork City and County Archives.

Terence MacSwiney’s letter was sold for an undisclosed sum in advance of auction in Bandon, West Cork, last night. It had been expected that it could fetch up to €2,000 on open market.

The letter, which he penned while interred at Richmond Barracks after the 1916 Easter Rising, came to light as part of a routine valuation of a family collection by West Cork antiques dealer Ted Hegarty.