74
192 CLARKE, Thomas.
Tom Clarke (First Signatory of the 1916 Proclamation). A print-
ed cheque with manuscript entries and endorsements, made out by
Clarke to A. J. Kettle Rate Collector for “seven pounds six shillings
& ten pence”. Signed Thos Clarke, dated July 4, 1910, with a good
signature, drawn on Northern Banking Co., Office, clipped at one
end as usual, without significant loss, endorsed at rear by recipient.
Rare. Thomas Clarke’s signature is one of the rarest of the 1916 lead-
ers as he spentmost of his adult life in jail or inAmerica.
After going toAmerica as a youngman, he was sent to Britain on an
ill-fated Fenianmission, and served 15 years in solitary confinement
under ferocious conditions. Afterwards he returned to America, and
it was only in 1907 that he came toDublin. He opened a newsagent’s
shop, which quickly became a centre of IRB activity. The other 1916
leaders insisted that his should be the first name signed to the Procla-
mation, in tribute to his personal history and as amark of continuity
with theFenian tradition.
€800 - 1200
193 PEARSE, Padraic.
PadraicMac Piarais [P.H. Pearse]. A paid cheque for £5.8.6 payable to
John Lawler. Royal Bank of Ireland, Terenure, dated 22nd Aug. 1914,
signed by Padraic Mac Piarais. Endorsed on the rear by John Lawler
and Charles Lawler, and stamped ‘John Lawler & Son / Rifles, Re-
volvers / & Ammunition Stoc[kists] / 2, Fownes’s Str[eet] / Dublin’.
Written entirely inPearse’shand toLawler’s, theDublinGun andAm-
munitiondealers.Attractivemementoof the leader of the 1916Rising.
€1200 - 1500
