ADAM'S - THE HISTORY SALE - APRIL 26TH 2017 (Click Lot title for more images and to Place Bid)

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Wednesday 26th April
A very good framed photograph of O’Kelly as a young man, probably circa 1920, circa 5 ½ ins x 4 ins, signed by the photographer Henri Manuel, and inscribed on mount ‘To Anne,
with affectionate regards, SeanT. Ó Ceallaigh’, framed and glazed.
A handsome portrait, which shows the quality of O’Kelly’s features before they became blurred by advancing age and good living.
A Sinn Fein diplomatic representative in Paris around 1920, O’Kelly was later a Fianna Fail Minister and became second President of Ireland.
The recipient is Anne Bullitt, daughter of the American diplomatWilliam Bullitt.
€ 300- 500
early 20th century, production ceased in Belfast in 1936
€ 250 - 350
from Comber in County Down, the last spirit was made in 1956, this bottle bottled
in the 1980s
€ 300 - 400
A gentleman’s wrist watch, early 20th century, with leather strap, metal case and
enamelled dial, diameter circa 1 ¼ ins, no maker’s mark apparent, not in working
order, with engraved inscription to rear,‘To my Godson / from John MacBride /
Easter Saturday / 1916’.
Provenance:TheVendor’s father is the Godson of John MacBride
Born inWestport, Co. Mayo in 1865, John MacBride joined the IRB in the 1880s. A
friend of Michael Cusack and Arthur Griffith, he went to South Africa in the 1890s.
He persuaded Arthur Griffith to join him there, and with other IRB members they
organised centenary celebrations for the Rising of 1798. When the BoerWar began
in 1899 he became second-in-command of an Irish Brigade formed to fight with
the Boers against the British, with the rank of Major. Afterwards he went to live in
Paris, and in 1903 he married Maud Gonne, who was introduced to him by Griffith.
They had a son, but the marriage failed, and MacBride returned to Dublin where he
became an official in theWaterworks Dept.
He did not join the IrishVolunteers, and took little part in the revolutionary ferment
of the early war years, but he became aware of the plans for a Rising at a very late
stage. He offered his services toThomas MacDonagh and was made second-in-com-
mand of the Jacob’s Factory garrison. Although not a signatory of the 1916 Procla-
mation, he was court-martialled and sentenced to death after the Rising. Evidently
the British had not forgotten his South African service. He was shot in Kilmainham
Jail on 5 May 1916.
The present item, dated Easter Saturday, must be his last gift before he‘resigned his
part in the casual comedy’ and joined the Rising. A unique and poignant item.
€ 500 - 800
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