PATRICK MURPHY [PADRAIG UA MURCHADHA], PRISONER, BELFAST JAIL 1918-19 A very good archive of letters and documents relating to this Gaelic League and Sinn Fein member and Irish Volunteer from...

PATRICK MURPHY [PADRAIG UA MURCHADHA], PRISONER, BELFAST JAIL 1918-19 A very good archive of letters and documents relating to this Gaelic League and Sinn Fein member and Irish Volunteer from Bray/Shankill, Co. Wicklow, who was a prisoner in Mountjoy and Belfast Jails 1918-19, including the period of the 'siege' of Belfast Jail, December 1918, including - ALS from Eamon de Valera, 17.x.17, 1 pp, from Sraid Fearchair [Harcourt Street - then Sinn Fein HQ] to Hon. Sec. Bray S.F. Club, stating he wishes 'to become a member of your branch of Sinn Fein', and asking for his name to be put forward for election, etc. Stained, a few small holes, no loss. The date is significant, as Dev was elected President of Sinn Fein at the Ardfheis about a week later, replacing Arthur Griffith. De Valera was already a Sinn Fein TD, but presumably had not previously joined a local Cumann. - ALS from Cathal Brugha on Dail Dept. of Defence notepaper, to Padraig Ua Murchadha, 15.9.21, in Irish, acknowledging a report which he has forwarded to O/C Dublin Brigade for his comments, etc. - Typescript Charge Sheet in respect of the Accused Patrick Murphy of Bray, Co. Wicklow, alleging that he spoke certain word [mentioning English Military Despotism, etc.], dated 23 August 1918. - Dail Nominating Paper nominating Robert Barton to stand for the Dail constituency of Wicklow, signed by Padraig Ua Murchadha and others, no date (1922?), separated at fold, complete; - a selection of original photographs showing burial of Fr. Albert Bibby (one of the 'Volunteer Priests') in the United States, where he was sent by his order, 1920s, inscribed rear by Murphy's friend Liam de Burca and with ALS mentioning Fr. Bibby; - an attractive handmade birthday card sent by Murphy to his wife Maire from Belfast prison, 3.8.1919, and sketches of his cell and the prison sent to his son Sean Diarmuid, 31 July 1919; - a folder containing letters about an internal dispute about the affairs of the Irish Republican Prisoners' Dependants Fund, October 1921, including two short TLS from Austin Stack as Dail Minister for Home Affairs (Cathal Brugha's letter above may relate to the same matter); - a folder containing letters mostly from Patrick Murphy in later years concerning his military service, military pension claim, etc., with details of his service; - a folder containing various other letters to Patrick Murphy and his wife, mostly post-1921; - a folder containing circa 20 prison letters from Padraig Murphy in Mountjoy and Belfast, 1918-19, to his wife, with censor's marks, a few of these letters (remarkably) on Sinn Fein headed paper; and a second folder containing circa 50 letters to Murphy in jail from his wife and various friends, some of them also in jail, many of these letters with censor's marks, mostly with original envelopes, some of them incomplete or with pages separated. We have not investigated these letters in detail, and they may contain further interesting material. Also a group of prison-made reproduction Tara brooches, apparenty made from prison pipework. The condition of the archive is mixed. Some of the letters are damp-stained or marked; some have pages separated or are incomplete. They have not been organised by date. Nevertheless it is a significant archive containingt a number of elements which may be of interest to scholars.

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