The Proclamation of the Irish Republic. ''Poblacht na hEireann / The Provisional Government of the Irish Republic to the People of Ireland.”

The Proclamation of the Irish Republic. ''Poblacht na hEireann / The Provisional Government of the Irish Republic to the People of Ireland.”

Dublin

Printed by the Gaelic Press on the anniversary of the Easter Rising

1917

The Proclamation of the Irish Republic is the foundation document of the Irish Free State. Written primarily by Padraic Pearse, the first printing was read aloud by him from the steps of the General Post Office, O'Connell Street, Dublin, on Easter Monday, 1916. All seven signatories were executed by the British authorities for their roles in the rebellion, their deaths serving to animate both Irish and international sentiment against Britain. This exceedingly rare 1917 printing was initiated by Helena Molony and the women’s nationalist movement Cumann na mBan to mark the first anniversary of the Rising during tense times before the War of Independence. Posted across Dublin using jam pots of glue, most copies were quickly torn down by the police, including one posted atop Liberty Hall a few weeks later. It took a squadron of police to break through a barricade to get onto the roof, but the poster survived for hours with hundreds of Dubliners looking on.

Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations