Our ‘Featured Letters’ space offers an opportunity for team members and collaborators to contextualise some of the letters in the collection by providing biographical and historical background to the letter or suite of letters, by ‘reading between the lines’, as it were, to further enrich the rich tapestry that is the Letters 1916-1923. If you would like to contribute to the project or would like to contribute an article to the ‘Featured Letters’ page, please email letters1916.23@gmail.com to discuss.
| Episode 1 – ‘Wishing you all a happy Christmas…’: Letter from Alfred Gerald Crofton to Lady Clonbrock, 13 December 1915 (National Library of Ireland) |
| Episode 2 – ‘We had seen great suffering but greater courage’: Letter from Emma Duffin to Maria Duffin, 5 February 1916 (Duffin Papers) |
| Episode 3 – ‘It is well for Dublin that it need take no precaution of the kind’: Letter from Nannie Beazley to Piaras Béaslaí, 14 February 1916 |
| Episode 4 – ‘To the Charitable People of America’: Letter to the Charitable People of America, 22 July 1916 |
| Episode 5 – ‘The Irish Citizen…Could not be missed I feel’: A special guest podcast recorded by our two interns, Emily Blackburn and Madison Ganson, from Beloit College, Wisconsin. This podcast focuses on the Irish suffragette, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, the Irish Citizen newspaper, and the pursuit of Irish labour rights. |
| Special Episode – The Letters 1916 Launch Listen to a Letters 1916 podcast recorded at the official project launch On 2 March 2016, the Letters of 1916 project was officially launched at Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines, Dublin. Richard Breen, John Chambers and Barney Doherty who are MA in Digital Humanities students from An Foras Feasa at Maynooth University were at the launch. They spoke to some of the attendees about their contribution to the project. |
| Featured Letter by Edward Kearns: Letter from John Quinn to George Gavan Duffy, 9 September 1916 (University College Dublin Archives) |
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The feature focuses on a letter written by John Quinn, on 9 September 1916, and sent across the Atlantic to his fellow lawyer George Gavan Duffy. A copy of the letter has found its way into the Letters of 1916 collection, and it serves as a fascinating portal to its time, and in particular to the context of Roger Casement’s execution. Read more here. |
| Featured Letter by Louise Tobin:
Letter from Edward O’Farrell to the Controller, Foreign Trade Department, 29 February 1916 (National Archives of Ireland) |
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This feature deals with a letter which highlights the problems faced by Irish businesses during these turbulent times. The letter in question is from Sir Edward O’Farrell, the assistant under-secretary for Ireland, to the Controller of the British Foreign Trade Department in London. O’Farrell encloses a report by a sergeant at ‘G’ Division, the detective branch of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, which deals with the illegal importation of glass from Belgium by a Mr. H. Wigoder in Feb. 1916. |
| Featured Letter by Sean Driver: Letter from Joseph Michael Stanley to George Bernard Shaw, 28 March 1916 (Military Archives of Ireland). |
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| Featured Letter by Dr Brian Hughes:
Letter from Alfred Crofton to Lady Clonbrock, 1 October 1916 (National Library of Ireland) |
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| Featured Letter by Dr Brian Hughes:
Letter from James Stephens to John MacDonagh, 24 August 1916 (National Library of Ireland) |
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On 3 May 1916, Thomas MacDonagh was executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin. Born in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary, in 1878, MacDonagh was a teacher, poet and writer. By 1916, he was a member of the secret revolutionary organisation responsible for the planning of the Easter Rising. |
