You are here: home > Online Exhibitions > Document Spotlight

Document Spotlight

Pro-Treaty Election Handbill, 1922

The Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 was ratified by Dáil Éireann on 7 January 1922. The Irish Free State held a general election in June 1922, with a split Sinn Féin fielding both anti- and pro- Treaty candidates.  This printed election handbill appears to date from May-June 1922, prior to the election. The handbill is part of the Liam De Roiste collection (Ref. U/271). 

Liam De Roiste was one of the 2 pro-Treaty Sinn Féin T.Ds elected in Cork city, the other being J.J. Walsh.  In Cork city and county, pro-Treaty candidates of all parties secured 11 out of 15 seats, with a national total of 58 pro-Treaty Sinn Féin seats against 36 for anti-Treaty side, the other parties (mainly pro-Treaty) winning 34 seats.

Less than 2 weeks after the election, on 28 June, soon after pro-Treaty General O'Connell was kidnapped, the Irish Free State Army began shelling the Four Courts in Dublin, then occupied by irregular forces, leading to the outbreak of the Civil War.

Frederick Douglass Letter to Mayor of Cork City, Richard Dowden, 11 Nov. 1845

 Douglas as a younger man, 1855

Frederick Douglass (b.1818 – d.1895) is a major historical figure in the United States. A social reformer, orator, writer and statesman, he escaped from slavery and became a leader of the slavery abolitionist movement. In August 1845 he arrived in Europe, spending 2 years touring Ireland and Britain, giving many lectures. A good deal of his time in Ireland was spent in Cork, where he found support for his ideals and where he was warmly received, particularly by Mayor Richard Dowden and family. He also became friends with Daniel O'Connell, MP,  'The Liberator', who had been campaigning for reform, Irish Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the Act of Union. During his trip, Douglass became legally free, as Irish and British supporters raised funds to purchase his freedom from his owner, Thomas Auld. 

The letter here in the Cork City and County Archives is part of the Richard Dowden collection, Ref. U.140/C/98. In the letter, Douglass gives heartfelt thanks to Dowden and his family, and refers to his own personal struggles. (See the transcript and view the orginal letter, below).

Extract from p.4 of the letter.

View original letter in full  Frederick Douglass Letter (PDF)

Transcript of Letter:

Limerick 11^th nov. 1845

My Dear Sir,      Allow me to express to you as well as words can, my deep sense of the obligations I am under to your self for the many attentions  which you were pleased to show me during my somewhat protracted stay in the City of which you are the highly honoured chief executive officer.

I think I am too well acquainted with the motives that guided you in your kind offices toward me – for a moment to suppose you desirous of such as expression from me. Indeed I know you require no such expression at my hand and I am therefore the more anxious to do it – not however for the purposes of rewarding you - for that I am persuaded you have already in the impartial testimony of a good conscience. I do it my Dear Sir, to ease a heart swelling with gratitude.

Trampled, reviled and maltreated as I have been by White people during the most of my life – early taught to regard my self their divinely appointed prey, and ever looking upon such as my natural [eminences] – you may readily imagine the grateful emotions that thrill my heart when I meet with facts- forever dispelling the darkness of such infernal doctrines.

I have travelled a great deal during the last few years – and have met with many benefactors but never have I met with one, in your station, having so many public cares and weighty responsibilities to bear, and yet so ready – so willing and anxious to devote time talent and official influence to the advancement of the noblest objects[,] as yourself.

I speak just what I feel – and what all who are acquainted with the facts will confess to be true, when I say that to your’s and the deep interest which the Miss Jennings took in me and my mission, I am almost entirely indebted for the success which attended my humble efforts while in the good City of Cork.    I shall ever remember my visit with pleasure, and never shall I think of Cork without remembering that yourself and the kind friends just named constituted the source from whence flowed much of the light, life and warmth of humanity which I found in that good City.

I received the token of your esteem which you sent, I have it on the little finger of my right hand, I never wore one- or had the disposition to do so before, I shall wear this, and prize it as the representative of the holy feelings with which you espoused and advocated my humble cause.

Please make my regards to Mrs Dowden and to Miss Susan,

And believe me

Most gratefully yours

Frederick Douglas[s] 

[To:] Richard Dowden (R.) Mayor of Cork