PEARSE, Padraic H. Collected Works of Pádraic H. Pearse [Signed by the patriot’s sister Margaret Pearse and Louis Le Roux on a slip tipped to the Le Roux volume]

Plays, Stories, Poems; Songs of the Irish Rebels and Specimens from an Irish Anthology; Political Writings and Speeches; Scríbhinní Phádraig Mhic Phiarais; The Story of a Success; The Man Called Pearse by Desmond Ryan; and The Life of Pearse by Le Roux. Illustrated. Six volumes. Dublin: Phoenix Publishing, n.d. [1920s]. Demy octavo. Green blind-stamped cloth, titled in gilt. Signed by the patriot’s sister Margaret Pearse and Louis Le Roux on a slip of paper tipped in to the Le Roux volume. Book label of Áine de Búrca on front endpapers of all volumes. A very good set. Very rare with signatures.

Margaret Pearse (1878-1968), Fianna Fáil politician, Senator and teacher was sister of Padraic and Willie. Following the executions of her brothers in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, Margaret continued to run St Enda's School. She was the matron and housekeeper for the school, while her mother was the headmaster. Louis Napoléon Le Roux (1890-1944) was a Breton nationalist. He is also known as Loeiz-Napoleon Ar Rouz in the Breton language. In 1911 he was one of the founders of the Breton Nationalist Party with Camille Le Mercier d'Erm. Having exiled himself to Switzerland to avoid fighting for France in World War I, he left for Ireland, where he established good relations with nationalist leaders.

Le Roux wrote one of the earliest biographies of Patrick Pearse. Eventually, and perhaps surprisingly, he became private secretary to the Conservative politician Harold Macmillan, before being killed during the London Blitz of World War II.