The Proclamation of Independence of the Irish Republic, a reprint of the originals printed at Liberty Hall on Sunday 23rd April 1916. Framed and glazed. 55 x 79.5cms. Titled in gilt on lower frame ‘EASTER RISING G.P.O. 1916.’

Dublin: An Post, 2007. A fine facsimile edition, same size as the originals.

The Proclamation of Independence of the Irish Republic is believed to have been mainly composed by Padraig Pearse, with some amendments by James Connolly and perhaps also Thomas MacDonagh. The final draft of the manuscript consisting of four sheets of paper was given to Thomas MacDonagh for secret keeping. He handed it over to James Connolly at the meeting of the Military Council on Easter Sunday morning in Liberty Hall, where it was set in type and printed that very morning, the day before the Rising. It was printed under James Connolly’s supervision, by three men previously employed on printing his Socialist newspaper The Workers’ Republic. The three men were Christopher Brady (printer), Michael Molloy and Liam O’Brien (compositors). Connolly ordered the arrest of these three, this was to safeguard their interests in case the building was stormed, thereby suggesting they were ‘working under duress’. The Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union paid the printing cost.
There is no trace of the original manuscript which was left in Liberty Hall after the printing was completed, unfortunately it must have been lost in the flames that swept Liberty HD during the shelling of Easter Week. The page containing the signatures was taken away by Michael Molloy who chewed it up into small pieces while in custody in Richmond Barracks.
‘IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN in the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom ...’
The honour of signing first, was given to the unrepentant old Fenian, Thomas J. Clarke (‘greatest of the Fenians’- as Pearse called him), he was followed by Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, P. H. Pearse, who was chosen as President of the Provisional Government, Éamonn Ceannt, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett. The Rising began on Easter Monday, although Eoin MacNeill had countermanded the order for rebellion, by placing an advert in the Sunday Independent stating: “All orders given to Irish Volunteers for Easter Sunday are hereby rescinded and no parades, marches or other movements of Irish Volunteers will take place”.
Five of the signatories of the Proclamation were in the G.P.O. Pearse, Connolly and Plunkett who had marched from Liberty Hall at the head of a combined force of Volunteers and Irish Citizens’ Army, met up with Clarke and Mac Diarmada. They established the headquarters of the Provisional Government there. They hoisted the tricolour over the G.P.O. and just past noon Pádraig Pearse, standing beneath the high portico of the G.P.O. and in the presence of his colleagues read the Proclamation, publicly proclaiming Ireland a Republic and a Sovereign Independent State, and the setting up of a Provisional Government:
“We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible “.
When Pearse had finished his reading of the Proclamation:
“In this supreme hour the Irish Nation must, by its valour and discipline and the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called”, an emotional James Connolly cried out: “Thanks be to God Pearse, that we have seen this day”.