File 6 - Minute and Record Book of the Dublin Battalions of the Irish Volunteers

40 pp; 27 cm x 10 cm; Bound volume; Manuscript

Minute book and attendance record book of the Dublin Battalions of the Irish Volunteers. Includes attendance records from January 1916 to April 1916. A three-page minute record from 22 February 1916 to 15 April 1916 appears to be in the hand of Patrick Pearse. This record includes references to ‘street fighting’, ‘protection on march’, and later ‘mobilization’. An entry on 18 March 1916 refers to ‘problems set re outposts protection [at] D[ublin] Castle’. Includes numerous signatures of Irish Volunteers in attendance at various battalion meetings in the first four months of 1916. Signatures include those of Thomas MacDonagh, Seán Heuston, Frank Shouldice, Frank Daly, Richard McKee, Thomas Slater, Piaras Béaslaí, Oscar Traynor, Thomas Hunter, Éamon de Valera, The O’Reilly (Ua Rathghaille), W. T. Cosgrave and William Pearse. The volume is extant in green, hard bound covers, with a gilt title reading ‘1916’ on the front cover.

There is some fraying at the edges of some of the opening pages. The front cover is worn (particularly at the edges) and some of the pages are desiccated and slightly brittle. Careful manual handling of this volume is required.