MacNeill’s bid to call off Rising fetches €30k at auction

Almost like the event itself, it nearly didn’t happen, but a private collector has paid €30,000 for a letter in which Irish Volunteers commander Eoin MacNeill tried to call off the 1916 Rising.

But the keen buyer forked out the reserve price to get his or her hands on the 11-word letter which had a huge part in the direction of Irish history.

“Straight away after the bidding ended, we got a phone call offering €30,000, as they were aware it didn’t make the reserve,” Kieran O’Boyle of Adam’s auctioneers said.