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info@adams.ie668
ANNA JOHNSTON [‘ETHNA CARBERY’] 1866-1902 & JOHN
O’LEARY 1830-1907
Two books from her library with inscriptions from John O’Leary the Irish separatist and
leading Fenian.
Autobiography of Wolfe Tone, ed. Barry O’Brien, 1893, 2 vols cloth, large paper edition,
inscribed in John O’Leary’s hand ‘Annie Johnson from her friend John 1894’;
John Todhunter, The Banshee and other Poems, L. 1888, inscribed to ‘Eithne ni’c
Sheagháin / Beul Feirsde / ó / Seagháin Uí Laoghaire / 1900’ - John O’Leary again.
In the poem, September 1913, W.B.Yeats lamented the death of O’Leary with the line:
“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone; it’s with O’Leary in the grave”
Anna’s father Robert Johnston was Ulster organiser for the IRB for many years, and
certainly knew John O’Leary well. The large paper edition of Tone’s memoirs was an
expensive book at the time, a generous present to the daughter of an old friend.
€100 - €200
669
WAR STORIES BY ‘JOHN BRENNAN’ [SIDNEY CZIRA, NEE
GIFFORD]
A folder containing five short typescript pieces (with an extra carbon copy of one)
about episodes in the Anglo-Irish War, subjects include ‘Kevin Barry’s Last Stand’,
‘Kevin Barry in the Grip of the Enemy’ by Sean O’Neill (endorsed in manuscript by
Barry’s sister Katherine Barry Moloney 1933, ‘So far as my knowledge goes of the
events described in this article the facts are correct’), ‘Mr. Sean Reynold’s story’ (about
his court martial, 2 copies), ‘Taking the Castle Mails’, and ‘The Kilmainham Escape’.
‘John Brennan’, a journalist and one of the Gifford sisters (another married Thomas
MacDonagh), was well placed to establish the truth of these matters. It is not clear for
what purpose these typescripts were sent to Seumas MacManus; perhaps he was to
seek American publication. In 1914 Sidney Gifford emigrated to America. There she
was in contact with Seumas Mac Manus who supported her fund raising efforts with
Cumann na mBan in New York.
Provenance: MacManus collection.
€100 - €200
Lot 669