FLEMING, Padraic. The Escape From Mountjoy and Other Prison Experiences of an Irish Volunteer Padraic Fleming (Convict E-445). Written by The Rector of an Irish College.

ESCAPE FROM MOUNTJOY WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF MICHAEL COLLINS

With a Foreword by Piaras Beaslai, T.D. New York: Reprinted by the Friends of Irish Freedom, Inc., 1920. First edition. Octavo. pp. 36. Recent wrappers with the original upper wrapper preserved. A very good copy. Exceedingly rare.

No copy located on JISC.

A rare contemporary account of imprisonment and escape during the Irish revolutionary period, written by IRA Volunteer Pádraic Fleming (1894–1952), whose remarkable career brought him into close association with many of the leading figures of the struggle for independence, including Terence MacSwiney, Thomas MacCurtain, Thomas Kent, Michael Collins, Harry Boland and Rory O'Connor.

A member of the Laois Volunteers from 1913, Fleming participated in the Easter Rising after being instructed by Patrick Pearse to disrupt railway lines at Clonard, Portlaoise and Ardreigh. Arrested in 1917 for attempting to procure arms, he was sentenced to five years' penal servitude. While imprisoned in Maryborough (now Portlaoise Prison), he repeatedly demanded political status, undertaking hunger protest and refusing to cooperate with the authorities. Following further imprisonment in Mountjoy, he finally secured political status before making a dramatic escape in 1920 with the assistance of Michael Collins, Harry Boland and Rory O'Connor.

This pamphlet recounts Fleming's prison experiences and escape. To avoid recapture, Collins arranged for him to travel to the United States, where he publicised the Irish cause. Published in New York by the Friends of Irish Freedom, the work was widely distributed throughout America by that organisation and the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, serving as an important piece of revolutionary propaganda during the War of Independence.

Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Fleming returned to Ireland at the request of Liam Mellows and assumed command of the South Eastern Division of the IRA in Wexford during the Civil War. Captured and imprisoned on several occasions, he repeatedly escaped before his eventual release at the end of the conflict. An exceptionally scarce and historically important first-hand account by one of the lesser-known but highly active participants in the Irish Revolution.

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