€190
A Fateful Document
'The Murder Members' a single folio sheet, verso blank, stating The following are the names of the members of the Partition Parliament who voted for the Murder Bill, and listing 56 names in two columns, including W.T. Cosgrave, Desmond Fitzgerald, Richard Mulcahy, Michael Staines, Padraig O'Maille, Dr. James Crowley, Sean McKeon, Ernest Blythe, Sean Milroy, Sean McGarry, Joseph McGrath, Sir James Craig, Pierce Beasley, Kevin O'Higgins, Alec. McCabe, etc., and concluding 'Keep This List For Reference'. Beside the name of Dr. James Crowley, a contemporary hand has written Con's Doctor - presumably a reference to Constance de Markiewicz. (1)
A fateful document. The Murder Bill, so-called, was an Act of the Free State parliament which authorised sentence of death upon those taken with arms. Soon after this document was issued, gunmen opened fire on Pádraig Ó Maille TD, deputy Speaker of the Dail, in a Dublin street while he was on his way to the Dail with another TD, Sean Hales, Ó Máille was wounded, and Hales - whose name is not on this list - was shot dead, apparently in mistake for another. In reprisal for these shootings, and in fear for their own lives, the Free State cabinet ordered the summary execution of four Republican prisoners detained since the seizure of the Four Courts, Rory O'Connor, Liam Mellows, Dick Barrett and Joseph McKelvey, entirely without any legal process or justification.
The present document is very rare. Fold marks, a few minor marginal tears, else v.g. (1)
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