| Description | A set of pamphlets and leaflets attacking the Free State Goverment in the immediate aftermath of the Irish Civil War, and in the run up to the 1923 General Election. Titles include "Not Guilty", "Hear Mr O'Higgins", "Who Stands for the Soversignty of the Irish People?", "Ulster Betrayed", "Would England Go to war?", "Liam Mellow's Last Letter" and "Sinn Fein Election Manifesto". |
| Administrative History | The items, printed in Manchester, have no identifying features that would give the identity of the person or group issuing them. Given that there were appearing in the immediate aftermath of the Irish Civil War, and their pronounced anti-treaty stance, this is not surprising. On the 11th June 1923 the Republican leadership not in jail met in the Mansion House and re-constituted the Sinn Fein Party as a republican party. The Re-organising committee established at the June meeting had two objectives, to run the Republican election campaign and to organize the party on a national basis. In the elections the party garnered 27% of the vote and had 44 deputies elected to the fourth Dail, in line with their abstentionist policy they did not take their seats, meeting instead as a seperate legislature claiming "de jure" but not "de facto" powers".
The items in this collection all appear to be hand-bills and leaflets to be handed out to the public, and indicate the detates and claims put forward by Sinn Fein to the electorate at the time as to why they should vote for them. Many of the items focus on the causes of the Civil War, the percieved role of Britain, and the execution of Republicans by the Provisional Government. |