Colleen Bawn Fete. In Aid of St John’s Hospital, Limerick, June 8th to 13th 1903. Official Programme. 6d. Official Programme.

With illustrations and folding plan. Limerick: 1903. pp. 88 (including interesting adverts). Modern stiff wrappers, with original pictorial upper cover laid on. Some fraying to margins of some pages (repaired). A good copy. Extremely rare.
"St John's Hospital was erected in the year 1787. Through the exertions of Dr. Geary it was much enlarged in 1846; and in 1888 the Nursing Staff of "The Little Company of Mary " got charge of it. It stands on that part of the old wall before which Bruce, Ireton, and William of Orange fought. St. John's Gate and the guard house, built in 1495, form part of the Hospital. Many
memories cling to both. At the gate the unhappy Wentworth Knighted Domnic White, and there were presented to Rinuccini the flags captured at Benburb.
In the guard room was imprisoned that fair Geraldine whose smiles, men said, were more powerful than swords; and from the guard rooms Bishop Hely was led to martyrdom at Kilmallock.
On the Hospital grounds once stood the famous Black Battery whose grim power Storey the Williamite historian so graphically describes. Well, let the past bury its dead. We look to a future of larger hope, and expect that the callín bán Fete will enable the Hospital to save the life of many a bread-winner, and enable its governors to procure suitable accommodation for a nursing staff, whose zeal is untiring, and skill second to none." - Introduction.
With numerous photos with names: Bishop O'Dwyer, Mayor Donnelly, Building and Decorating Committee, Garryowen Variety Stall Ladies, Tea Garden Ladies, Cigar Divan, Shamrock In-door Tea Staff, The Erin Stall, Variety Stall Ladies, St. John's Stall Ladies, Palmistry Grotto Ladies, Restaurant Ladies, Restaurant Committee, Cafe Chantant, In-door Amusements Committee, etc.

A rare survival of this elaborate programme issued for the Colleen Bawn Fête, a week-long carnival held in Limerick in aid of St. John’s Hospital. The event drew its title from Gerald Griffin’s famous play The Colleen Bawn (1829), and the programme includes details of entertainments, performances, dances, raffles, and concerts, together with numerous advertisements from Limerick and Munster businesses at the turn of the century.

Not recorded in COPAC or WorldCat. Extremely scarce.