Guerilla Days in Ireland & Poblacht na h-Eireann

Morlar

I decided to add a few bits and pieces into a website I run, including a small selection of several 1922 editions of 'Poblacht na h-Eireann - War News' (Irish Civil War Anti-Treaty IRA newspaper). Also an autographed copy of Tom Barry's 'Guerilla Days in Ireland' the classic account of the famous Cork Flying Column leader during the Irish War of Independence. Some other material also.





http://www.militaria-archive.com/independence/poblacht/index.html

Here are some Irish Civil War era anti-treaty newspapers 'Poblacht na h-Eireann' :

Poblacht na h-Eireann - War News no.23 25th July 1922

Morlar

1922 editions of Poblacht na h-Eireann (Irish Civil War Anti-Treaty IRA newspaper)

Poblacht na h-Eireann - War News no.32 5th August 1922. Irish Civil War Anti Treaty IRA paper





Poblacht na h-Eireann - War News no.42 18th August 1922. Irish Civil War Anti Treaty IRA paper





Poblacht na h-Eireann - War News no.70 29th September 1922. Irish Civil War Anti Treaty IRA paper

Morlar

Poblacht na h-Eireann. Republic of Ireland - (Scottish Edition), Saturday September 30th 1922















There is also some material from the Cappuchin Annual 1940



and 1966

HerrScheisse

Oh I am so jealous of that signed book. So jealous!!!!! You won't believe how jealous I am :eek:

That is one of my favorite books on the war of Independance! very readable and insightful. I am always amazed at the contrast between Dan Breen, Tom Barry and Ernie O'Malley - all have excellent books on the period but such a huge difference in personality and approach. But Tom Barry's was the first of the three I read so it holds a special place for me

The only one I have is a personally signed copy of Gerry Adam's book "Hope and History" from more than 7 years ago.

Morlar

HerrScheisse wrote: »

That is one of my favorite books on the war of Independance! very readable and insightful. I am always amazed at the contrast between Dan Breen, Tom Barry and Ernie O'Malley - all have excellent books on the period but such a huge difference in personality and approach. But Tom Barry's was the first of the three I read so it holds a special place for me

Completely agree the Tom Barry, Dan Breen and Ernie O'Malley books are compulsory reading for this period. I'd love to one day add a signed Breen and O'Malley to this !

At the last Munster Militaria fair in Cork at the Irish Volunteers stand one guy had an autographed picture signed by Tom Barry to his (the guy's) father in Cork. I think particularly Breen and Barry were revered in their later years so there is probably a lot of autographed material from them out there.

HerrScheisse

Morlar - any idea of a ballpark figure for a signed item by one of the three names mentioned? I have no idea at all as I have not come across such items yet. For example a signed book, or a signed photo?

Morlar

HerrScheisse wrote: »

Morlar - any idea of a ballpark figure for a signed item by one of the three names mentioned? I have no idea at all as I have not come across such items yet. For example a signed book, or a signed photo?

Hi, been away and just seeing this now. The best place to get valuations is auction catalogues, however you need the 'realised price list' too, not just what the buyer was looking for.

Last Whytes auction I asked them for their back catalogue collection, so I will look through them when I get a chance and see what price range they were looking for.

Personally I think it would depend on the item too. ie a signed first edition, well the first edition would be worth a fortune in any event, add a signature and it goes up more. If it's a piece of paper, then worth less unless there is some historical significance.

In my opinion a Breen one would be less valuable than an O'Malley. I could be wrong but I think Breen is more likely to have signed a lot more items over the years and was more in the public eye than O'Malley. So there are likely more Breen ones out there. Now that you mention it I am not sure I have even seen an O'Malley one.

FYI There was a collection of Breen correspondence in one of the auctions a few years ago (Can't remember if it was Adams or Whytes), it included a lot of private letters written at around the time he was starting work on his book.

Morlar

FYI the Dan Breen correspondence collection one was in the 2010 Adams auction. I don't know how much this finally went for.

Legendary Tipperary Republican
Breen (Dan) 1894 - 1969: A very interesting file of correspondence between the legendary Tipperary Republican Dan Breen and the IRA Chief-of-Staff and others 1923 - 25, including about 30 autograph signed letters and
notes from Breen himself, four autograph letters from Maire Mac Swiney of Sinn Fein and various typescript copies of replies from the IRA Chief-of-Staff and others. There are two interlinked strands in this correspondence.
The first concerns a debt of about £150, which Breen maintains is owed to him on foot of expenses and outlays incurred by him. He is repeatedly asked for a full accounting of the details of this sum, which he does
not supply. Various smaller sums are remitted to him, and eventually the bulk of the debt is cleared.

The second strand concerns a ‘committee’ set up in 1924 to assist Dan Breen. According to Breen, the purpose of the Committee was to assist him in publication of his book of memoirs (published as ‘My fight for Irish Freedom’
). According to a circular in this file, however, the Committee was in fact a ‘Dan Breen Testimonial Committee,’ and its purpose was that ‘an effort should be made to mark the country’s gratitude to Dan Breen for his services
in the cause of freedom. The Irish people are not ungrateful and we believe that when the call is made they will generously respond, and that no differences of the moment will weaken the response. Dan is at present writing
his experiences in the Anglo-Irish War, and the committee to be formed, might perhaps also consider how he can be assisted in this matter.’ (10.1.24).

A further circular (17.1.1924) lists 20 members of the Testimonial Committee. On 22 January the Chief-of-Staff writes to Dan, ‘I believe a number of Free-Staters and ‘neutral’ Republicans are getting up a testimonial for you
.... I wish to point out to you that this affair is highly dangerous for the Republican movement, for your own personal honour, and for the boys in jail, and on the run. if this committee goes on, with prominent Staters on
it, the Staters will take good care that the people at home and aboard are given the impression that we all agreed to forget and forgive and quietly accept His Majesty’s rule.... . If they approach you to accept a testimonial tell them you don’t want anything that is bought with blood-money for soldiers of the IRA.’ This response may have been influenced by reports that Hearst Publishers had agreed to buy the memoirs for $86,000.
Various other letters in the file discuss the merits of the Committee members, some of whom do indeed appear to be ‘Staters’; Dan Breen replies that he sees nothing wrong with the committee, known to him as a ‘publishing
committee’ and that its members are ‘well known to be alright,’ etc. There is no evidence that Breen did disassociate himself from the Committee. He continues to press for the remaining money owed to him, at one point
saying he needs the cash to complete the purchase of a small farm. (21 Oct. 1924).
* A unique and most interesting correspondence, revealing aspects of the Republican struggle not usually open to scrutiny. As an Archive, w.a.f.
Provenance: Maurice (Moss) Twomey Archive. (1)
€4000 - 6000

HerrScheisse

Thanks for that info Morlar - I am amazed that Dan breen survived the war of Independance; Even his later interviews when he was an old man, he never lost that bull attitude!

Must keep an eye on Whytes, I had a look at their online catalogue and it is a mixture of sold / unsold items. How do you determine what is available on the next auction?

Morlar

Get on the whytes mailing list, they send you a postcard and an email a few weeks in advance of the next 'Irish Independence' auction.

Their catalogue is online about a month before the auction, and they have viewing days at their offices in dublin city in the days running up to the auction.

You can't beat attending the auction for the atmosphere of it all too. A good portion of buyers are internet/phone from abroad but there are also a lot of collectors in attendance. At the last one the catalogues were free, the one before that they were (iirc) €10.

The Adams catalogues on the other hand are €20 ! Which is pretty shocking.

I have seen whytes and adams back catalogues on sale at militaria fairs, they are pretty sought after. Basically being a several hundred page full colour catalogue of Irish Independence militaria and are usually full of obscure notes and information.

If you walk into their office and ask nice they may give you some back issues for free, I collected a bunch a few months ago after making a small purchase at the last auction. They were friendly and helpful in there. The 'final' price list is not going to be included with the back catalogues obviously but they are still useful to have. I am definitely going to the next one so maybe boards.ie militaria forum can organise an outing ? I know Timo (Phateon) also goes, and Paddy (who hasn't posted in a while) so the more the merrier.

HerrScheisse

Thanks for that info - I am going to get myself on the mailing list. I think with auctions you have to be very careful with your limits, and stick to them :eek:

citizen_p

Just in relation to Dan Breens book

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Review

Gertrude55

Morlar wrote: »

Hi, been away and just seeing this now. The best place to get valuations is auction catalogues, however you need the 'realised price list' too, not just what the buyer was looking for.

Last Whytes auction I asked them for their back catalogue collection, so I will look through them when I get a chance and see what price range they were looking for.

Personally I think it would depend on the item too. ie a signed first edition, well the first edition would be worth a fortune in any event, add a signature and it goes up more. If it's a piece of paper, then worth less unless there is some historical significance.

In my opinion a Breen one would be less valuable than an O'Malley. I could be wrong but I think Breen is more likely to have signed a lot more items over the years and was more in the public eye than O'Malley. So there are likely more Breen ones out there. Now that you mention it I am not sure I have even seen an O'Malley one.

FYI There was a collection of Breen correspondence in one of the auctions a few years ago (Can't remember if it was Adams or Whytes), it included a lot of private letters written at around the time he was starting work on his book.

Hello Morlar

I am interested in the back catalogues of Whytes - did they go back far, and they just give them to you or did you have to pay for them? Thanks

Morlar

Hi Gertrude,
Welcome to boards ! The auction catalogs were free for the asking, I had bought an item, paid for it and was collecting it when I asked about the old catalogs, an office worker dissappeared for about 5 minutes and came back with them for free.

I think they have boxes of spares left over after the auctions and are ok with giving them away even though they were originally on sale. They are a useful resource & make for interesting reading even without the 'achieved prices' list. Ideally I'd like them all in .pdf format as it's quicker to search but you can't have everything I spose.

ciarang85

Morlar,

Just wondering have you ever got your signed copy of Guerilla Days in Ireland valued? as i have a signed one at home also, inherited it from my grandad, would never sell it but just wondering how much it would be worth if you know? thanks

Morlar

Hi Ciaran, to be honest I don't think it'd be that valuable in terms of money. I wouldn't sell my one but if I did I think it might fetch around 60-80EUR (open to correction on that).

I suppose value might depend on when it was signed too, I'd imagine a first edition signed at the time of publication would be a lot more valuable than one of the countless others he would have signed throughout his life.

Derrindaffderg

Morlar - Are they the only editions of "Poblacht na h-Eireann you have? A relative of mine, Joseph Hudson died on 12th August 1922 after being shot by FS Army on 10th August. I know he gets mentioned in at least one but maybe two editions that appeared obviously some time after 12th August. (It may have been September editions) I saw these in the National Library many years ago but didnt get a copy for some reason! I couldnt spot his name in any of the editions you posted.

Do you know how often was it published?

Cheers.

Dr Strange

Just to point out that Morlar closed his account in 2012.

Derrindaffderg

Preusse wrote: »

Just to point out that Morlar closed his account in 2012.

Cheers Preusse. I actually hadn't noticed that until after I posted!

I'm looking for a scan of a copy from August/September that mentions a Joseph Hudson (my Grandfather's cousin) shot in Glasthule on 10th August 1922 and dies two days later on the 12th. I know the NLI holds copies but I cant get in there anytime soon. If anyone else can help? I know the edition exists as I saw it before many years ago but dont remember what date but it wasn't too long after he died. If anyone can help I'd be eternally grateful.

Regards

DD