Requiscat

Requiscat

Dublin

Cuala Press

1921

Memorial card for Michael O’Callaghan, Republican mayor of Limerick.

Shortly after midnight in the early hours of March 7, 1921, the sitting mayor of Limerick, George Clancy, and his immediate predecessor, Michael O’Callaghan, were murdered in their homes by British forces, the so-called Black and Tans. Born in 1879, O’Callaghan had been active in nationalist organizations since 1905, speaking on the same stage as Padraic Pearse several times, ultimately becoming the mayor of Limerick in 1920. The printing by the Cuala Press of this “Requiscat” card, offering prayers for the repose of a martyred person, shows how the Yeats sisters' sentiments had become increasingly sympathetic to the Republican cause in the years since the Easter Rising.