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The History Sale 2015
www.adams.ie733
PROCLAMATION OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC: THE
VERY RARE HANDBILL ISSUE, EASTER 1916
A letterpress printed copy of the 1916 Proclamation, on flimsy
newsprint paper, handbill size, 21.8 x 14 cms, identical to a copy
sold in these rooms in April 2011 (lot 506). A few small marginal
tears, but a very good clean copy.
With a typed sheet (recent) stating this version of the Proclamation
was printed during Easter Week, probably on Wednesday April 26
1916, by Joe Stanley and his staff at O’Keeffe’s printing-house, 3
Halston St., within the area controlled by the Volunteers.
Only three other copies of this handbill are recorded: one in the
British National Archives at Kew among the papers of William
Wylie, prosecuting barrister at the 1916 courts-martial, another at
the National Library of Ireland among the Joseph Holloway papers,
marked by Holloway ‘1916’, and the Adams 2011 copy (with a
Connolly family provenance).
In view of its typography, its scarcity and the provenance of
the other known copies, it is very likely that this handbill was
printed by Joseph Stanley during Easter Week, on the same
presses as the Second and Third Easter Week bulletins (see
O’Reilly’s biography of Stanley). It is thus the second issue of the
Proclamation.
It is a fragile document, and understandably very rare.
€3,000 - €5,000
Lot 733