Copies of approximately 1000 outgoing letters, averaging 1 per page. Good legibility.
Includes many references to the Tullamore 'affray' or Tullamore Incident, for example, letter to Tim M. Healy, M. P, House of Commons: '...I was immediately concerned with giving the facts in support of the point that the Competent Military Authority - Martial Law and the Defence of the Realm Regulations notwithstanding - noted without lawful authority in taking the prisoners out of Tullamore Gaol, that he has them illegally in his custody, and that the proposed trial by Court Martial will be illegal. ...It is entirely a case for a civil tribunal - for a jury; and on the evidence it is extremely unlikely that a jury anywhere would convict. It had not the most remote connection with the "Rising"; and to drag these men and boys before a Court of Military officers steeped in the atmosphere of the Insurrection and trotted out on the rebel stage a grave injustice - and is putting prisoners in serious danger.' (23 May 1916)

Letterbook created by Reginald Digby recording letters received from the tenants’ association on the Geashill Estate in relation to the sale of lands by Lord Digby to the tenants under the Land Act of 1903. Includes his copy replies to the secretaries of the association, James Matthews and John Corcoran, and later James Chissell. Also includes copy letters from solicitor to the estate, Lewis Goodbody, who advises on proceedings with the Land Commission and letters from Fr. O’Beirne PP, acting as an intermediary between the estate and the tenants.

Includes a memo of a meeting between Lord Digby and a deputation from the tenants’ association on 30 September 1907, and the decision arrived at by the tenants at a further meeting in the Forester’s Hall, Tullamore, on 2 January 1908 to reject the terms of sale put forward by Lord Digby due to his decision not to cancel the hanging gale and remit a half year’s rent as requested by the tenants.

Also includes later newspaper cuttings concerning unrest on the Estate at the decision to sell untenanted lands to three land owners rather than distributed to small holders and evicted tenants. Cuttings also refer to the Geashill Cattle Drive of November 1914 and the subsequent court martial with James Rogers representing the forty-six arrested. Includes transcripts of James Rogers’ cross-examination of County Inspector Hubert William Crane. Also includes a loose printed catalogue of the auction of Geashill Castle’s contents to be held 22 March 1922.

Undated ms list of applications for allotments under new tillage scheme with attached rough notes.

Undated alphabetical list of licensed wastepaper merchants.

Handwritten list dated April 16th 1941 of persons to whom seed potatoes are to be distributed free.

Personal and military papers of William Edward Parsons, Major Lord Oxmantown, (from 1908 the fifth earl of Rosse) including commissions; illuminated addresses from the Heaton and Shipley tenants on his coming-of-age, 1894; and from the Birr Parish Vestry on his marriage, 1905; a fairly savage attack on him in The Midland Tribune at the time of his return from the Boer War in 1900 to join the newly formed Irish Regiment; letters from him to Toler R. Garvey during the Boer War and the first World War; a page recording the signatures of Lord Oxmantown and other Irish notabilities who attended a shoot at Ashford, Cong, Co. Mayo; during a visit by the Prince of Wales, 1905; and the fifth earl’s London address book, 1911.

Also includes copy of his birth certificate (1873); commissions and applications to Officers’ Reserve (1908); appeal to be allowed to appear before Medical Board in Dublin, not London (1916); detailed medical reports on the extent of his wound, by shell to the head, where a palm-sized piece missing, damage to his speech, comprehension and gait causing 80% disability with epileptic attacks; his death certificate plus further obituary of the fifth earl by Michael Pegum prepared for the Kildare St and University Club for publication in a book of memorials to those members of the Club who gave their lives in WWI and WWII (2010).

Includes letters to Toler R. Garvey (‘Rob’) from the front describing poisonous gas attacks in the trenches (26 April 1915 and 11 May 1915).

Typescript of memoir titled ‘Do You Remember’. Recounts the life in Birr and covers the following subjects: soldiers from Birr returning from World War I (1918), the Treaty (1921), occupation of Free State Troops of ‘The Gorm' (the workhouse) in Birr (1922), burning of Crinkle Barracks (1922) and other reminiscences of life in Birr from 1930s to 1980s.

Memoir by Maura O'Brennan, Church St. Tullamore, recounting her youth in Co. Wexford, her republicanism and the events of Easter Week 1916.

Memoir by Aloysius O'Brennan recounting the Tullamore Incident of 20 March1916 and the subsequent charges brought against 12 men in relation to the incident.

Memoir by Aloysius O'Brennan describing 1798 Rebellion, the Great Famine, Irish Parliamentary Party, Home Rule, the futility of constitutional agitation, formation of Irish Volunteers, Redmonite split in volunteers in 1914, Sinn Fein, the Howth gun-running, and the rise of Gaelic League.