Markiewicz, Constance de (Countess) A file of Correspondence...

Hammer

€6,500

Markiewicz, Constance de (Countess) A file of Correspondence relating to Fianna Eireann and its relations with the Post-Treaty I.R.A., 1923-25, approx. 23 letters, draft letters and memos, mostly unsigned typescript carbon copies from various I.R.A. officers but including five manuscript letters and memos in the Countess’ hand and two T.L.S. by her, ending early in 1925, two years before her death, and a year before she joined Fianna Fail on its launch.

The File was presumably compiled by someone in I.R.A. HQ.  It begins with a letter from the Countess to [Chie]f of Staff dated 30.8.23, saying she has ‘received a letter from “T.R.” stating that he has been appointed by you to reorganize the Fianna.’ She explains that the Fianna is a distinct organization, with its own headquarters staff & deciding its own policy – and so by implication is not to be reorganized by anyone appointed by the I.R.A. The Chief of Staff (unnamed) replies that they have no intention of taking over the Fianna, but they tried some months ago to get in touch with some of the old Fianna G.H.Q. staff and could find none [the Countess may have been in jail at the time]. ‘I am very glad you are still interested in the Fianna Organisation and I am sure T.R. and yourself can come to a satisfactory arrangement  ..’ Later letters include a request for a small loan to pay expenses of witnesses at ‘the pending court marshall [sic] of Sean Harling’, difficulties in contacting B[arney] Mellows, an appeal from the Countess for financial assistance with the bill for reprinting the Fianna Handbook, a collection for funds to assist Fianna ex-prisoners (24.11.24), etc.
Condition varies but generally good.

The Correspondence illustrates the decline and disarray of the Anti-Treaty Republican groups after the end of the Civil War, and shows a degree of mutual impatience between its various components. Fianna Eireann was founded in 1909 by the Countess and Bulmer Hobson as a national alternative to the Boy Scout movement; a few years later it became effectively the youth wing of the Irish Volunteers.  

The Countess’s Manuscript Letters are on large sheets of flimsy paper and are very fragile, please handle carefully.
As a collection, w.a.f.  (1)