The letters in the Charlie Daly collection concern Irish republican Charlie Daly, who rejected the peace treaty with Britain and was subsequently captured and imprisoned at Drumboe Castle in County Donegal, where he was executed on 14 March 1923.
As we’ve explored the collection, one very interesting feature which has emerged is the fact that women comprise approximately 70% of the correspondence. Despite extensive research in Charlie Daly’s story and family, many of the women within the network remain unknown.
We are currently appealing to our community to help us find out more information about the women in the Daly collection, which we recently acquired from Kerry Library Archives. We have already processed some of the Daly letters and invite you to read and transcribe them.
One visually attractive letter is a greeting card in Celtic design, sent by Mary McFadden in December 1922.
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In his letters to his mother Ellen, Charlie Daly discusses his reaction to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. His mother divulges information about the situation in Kerry during his imprisonment. She also discusses her other children in letters to Charlie, e.g. the imprisonment of his brothers, Thomas and William, in Tralee, and his sister Susan, who is studying to be a teacher in Dublin. The collection also includes Ellen Daly’s correspondence right after Charlie’s execution.We are looking forward to sharing more letters from this expansive collection soon.