Michael Collins’s ‘secret service unit’ in the trade union movement

There has always been indirect evidence in Dáil Éireann and trade union archives of republican infiltration, and recently released Military Service Pension applications show that a number of IRA and IRB activists were engaged in precisely this exercise. Some members of the group submitted identical statements with their applications that: ‘I was a member of … Read more

A flavour of the collection

1916 Rising Records and documents relating to Easter Week 1916 are contained in a series of files catalogued under ‘Membership and Organization’, including IRA Nominal Rolls and reports by Cumann na mBan, Na Fianna Éireann and the Irish Citizen Army. The most important of these files include the ‘Nominal Rolls for Easter Week 1916’ compiled … Read more

Liam O’Flaherty’s 1922 manifesto

Sir,—The Liam and Tom O’Flaherty Society is searching for the manifesto issued by a 120-strong group of unemployed who seized the concert hall at the Rotunda (today’s Gate Theatre) in an effort to highlight the apathy of the authorities towards unemployment in the newly founded Irish Free State, 19–22 January 1922. This manifesto was drawn … Read more