Teen patriot’s last note to mum for sale

Teenage patriot Kevin Barry’s last poignant message to his mother, written the day before his execution, is among several rare items associated with the War of Independence figure which are to be auctioned next week.

The handwritten note, ‘To Mother from Kev, on eve of his death’, scribbled on the back of a religious card, is guided at between €700 and €1,000.

It is among 750 lots — including a collection of several important documents relating to Kevin be auctioned by Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers in a rare book and collectors sale in Dublin next Tuesday.

Barry was 18 when he was hanged in Mountjoy for his role in an IRA ambush of British soldiers in Dublin on September 20, 1920. Three soldiers died from injuries sustained in the incident. Barry was captured, tortured, refused to inform, tried for murder, sentenced to death by hanging, and was executed in Mountjoy Prison on November 1, 1920.

His execution, just days after the death of Republican Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence McSwiney, following a hunger strike, attracted international attention and outraged nationalist public opinion. Other Barry-related items up for sale include his birth certificate, a photograph of him as a two-year-old child, his student science notebook from Belvedere College, a certificate of his medical studies at UCD, and a large folder containing information pertaining to the Kevin Barry Memorial Committee dating from 1930 to 1934.

Viewing takes place in the Fonsie Mealy auction rooms in the Clyde Court Hotel, Ballsbridge tomorrow from 10.30am to 7pm. The auction takes place in the hotel on Tuesday at 10.30am.

* www.fonsiemealy.ie