REED, Talbot Baines. Parkhurst Boys and Other Stories of School Life. (KEVIN BARRY’S COPY)

London: Office of "Boys Own Paper". N.d. Crown octavo. pp. 312. Signed by Kevin Barry on front free endpaper. Pictorial red cloth, spine professionally rebacked. A unique item.

Provenance: From Kevin Barry to his sister, Eileen (Elgin).Thence by descent.
Kevin Barry (1902-1920) was hanged in Mountjoy prison, after a trial by court martial, on 1 November 1920 – “Just a lad of 18 summers”. He had been a student at Belvedere College and was attending the Medical School of UCD. Barry had already taken part in several IRA actions before he was captured on 20 September 1920 after an attack on a military lorry in Upper Church Street, Dublin, in which three British soldiers were killed. At the end of October a sworn statement by Barry alleging that he had been tortured by British soldiers (for not disclosing information about his comrades) was released to the press.
Lord French, however, confirmed the verdict of the Court Martial on 31 October and Barry was executed on the following day (All Saints Day). The religious significance of the day, combined with his youth and the manner of his death, all combined to make Kevin Barry a martyr in Ireland's cause.

[L4 10A]