Beschreibung:

IRISH INDEPENDENCE -- Poblacht na h-Eireann War News , nos. 2, 3 (two copies, one printed on yellow paper, the other on green), 5, 6 and 10, 28 June - 6 July 1922; and Truth , no. 2, 11 July 1922. 6 broadsides (494 x 378mm, War News ; 358 x 235, War News no. 10) and one 4-leaf news-sheet (444 x 283mm, Truth ). (Light folds, few tiny marginal nicks, minor creasing in one.) These rare broadsides, preserved in an excellent, fresh state, document the first weeks of the Irish Civil War. The earliest in the group is the second proclamation from the Four Courts as it was under siege from Free State forces, printing the text 'The fateful hour has come', with 13 printed signatories (the last P. Ruttledge); a statement by Eamon de Valera, and an admonition 'Beware of Black and Tans...'. War News 3 continues to report from the Four Courts, calls a Rally to the Flag, and reports on Free State snipers and Michael Collins; no. 5 recounts the loss of the Four Courts; no. 6 announces 'the Fight Continues' and 'I.R.A. Prisoners Treated as Criminals'; no. 10 outlines the defence of O'Connell Street and 'the Spirit of Cathal Brugha'. The Truth , no. 2, is a pro-treaty news-sheet proclaiming that 'Ireland is not Deceived' and that 'Ireland does not believe that the men who kept the flag flying throughout the Black and Tan Terror are going to betray her now'. The close chronological succession of the works offered here allows one to follow the fast-moving events of an unstable time in Anglo-Irish relations, Irish civil relations, and even relations within the increasingly fractious IRA. (7)