WHYTE'S THE HISTORY SALE TIMED ON-LINE AUCTION 1-11 NOVEMBER 2023

49 1916 (20 April) The ‘Castle Document - Secret Orders issued to Military Officers. add details 7.50 by 4.50in. (19.1 by 11.4cm) Condition: Fine. An article published in An t-Óglac -The Irish Volunteer) on 8 April 1916 called for Volunteer manoeuvres on Easter Sunday 23 April 1916. On Wednesday,15 April 1916, the Irish Republican Brotherhood published this notice, supposedly decoded from a communication emanating from Dublin Castle. It was printed on a hand press by Joseph Plunkett and Rory O’Connor at Larkfield House, Plunkett’s home off the Lower Kimmage Road. Known as the ‘Castle Document’, apparently ordering the execution of Eoin Mac Neil, arrest of Volunteer leaders and occupation of Dublin by the British Army, it was shown to MacNeill. He was then easily persuaded to give an order to the Irish Volunteers ‘to resist any British action.’This was the order that the IRB needed to go ahead with the Rising. The Nationalist weekly paper, New Ireland, edited by Patrick J. Little (1884-1963), published the text of the document as a single sheet handbill entitled ‘’Secret Orders issued to Military Officers’’ in its issue for Saturday 22 April 1916 (vol. II no. 49), just two days before the Easter Rising began. However MacNeill discovered, sometime around 20 April that the ‘Castle Document’ was a fake. He then put an advertisement in the Irish Independent newspaper which told all volunteers that ‘No parades, marches or other movements of the Volunteers will take place.’This cancellation caused the IRB to move back the rebellion one day to Easter Monday - 24 April, 1916. Many rural Volunteers, who had come to town on Sunday only to hear the rebellion was cancelled, returned home. Although all the Rising’s leaders now realised that they were doomed, they still went ahead with the plans for rebellion. There are only a few recorded copies of this important document in public records. Very few can have survived as the printing would appear to have been small - possibly only a few were printed to persuade MacNeill and other Irish Volunteer commanders. Even the second printing - the handbill published in New Ireland, is extremely scarce. This rare first printing of the infamous ‘Castle Document’ is an extremely important catalyst for the Rising; if it had not been concocted the rebellion might never have taken place, and if Eoin MacNeill had not discovered it was ‘fake news’ the Rising might have been more successful. Estimate €2,000-€3,000 (approx £1,720-£2,590) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 49 History 32