Beschreibung:

JAMES MALLON, 1916 Volunteer and Frongoch internee A large and interesting collection of autograph signed letters to and from his wife Florence while he was interned at Wakefield Prison and Frongoch internment camp after the Easter Rising, May-October 1916, and again at Ballykinlar 1921, well over a hundred letters in all, with family photographs and related documents, in five plastic file-holders, Mallon's letters mostly with the original envelopes with censor's labels James Mallon, born in Belfast, lived at George's Quay in central Dublin and had a hairdressing business in Eden Quay nearby. He was married with one son. A member of the Irish Volunteers since 1913, he served in the 1916 Rising under Eamon de Valera at Boland's Mills with 'B' Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. After the Rising he was interned at Wakefield and Frongoch, where he was known as 'the Frongoch Barber'. He was a Sinn Fein candidate at Dublin municipal elections in 1920; in 1921 he was again interned at Ballykinlar. Mallon's letters home are chatty and generally cheerful. In his first (undated) letter from Wakefield he writes, 'Darling Florence, how in God's name are you managing at all. I am writing this from Wakefield Prison .. Don't fret or worry about us, we are simply great, thank God for it, I hope you and all at home are the same. If you can half manage at all, keep Ernest's endowment policies going, one is 6d., the other is 3 1/2d. .. Hold on as long as you possibly can to the shop and if the worst goes to the worst be very careful of the fittings, save the Lino. This is a military prison but it has civilian wardens too, it is one of the biggest in England, it holds 1400 men, it is in Yorkshire, you often heard of the famous pudding. O my God I wish I had a bit of last Xmas pudding now, we are well treated but the food is terrible ..' On 24 June 1916, after his arrival at Frongoch, 'This is a magnificent place, it is the nearest thing to Holy Erin that could possibly be .. as usual I am the barber here, we have shop and all and I am kept busy, I am not able to say all I would like to say as the bit of paper we get is not sufficient ..' On 22 August, 'You ask me to explain the empty envelope. Darling it means that I sent you a letter and because it had some remarks in it about somebody, you never received it .. the powers that be return the envelope and destroy the contents so you see how I came to get the empty envelope, and by the way darling I think you must be writing sedition too, your letter to hand has four lines completely obliterated by the Censor ..' The letters from his wife Florence, evidently a capable woman, are of considerable interest, with much news about conditions at home. Her letter to James in Ballykinlar dated May 29th 1921 includes an account of the IRA attack on the Custom House on May 25 (just up the road from the shop at Eden Quay). 'We are going through it since Wednesday morning, we were all kept indoors one whole day and nearly half of another, it was a terrible time, up to last night the Mil were in the Hall, they withdrew after curfew last night, at the time Jim none of us were out of doors Thank God .. Although we were up beside it we did not see any of it, only heard it as we dared not look out because it was too dangerous .. the fire is still burning yet and no sign of it going out.' Business is poor at the hairdresser's, 'for instance this week's total is ?6-8-0 and had to pay wages ?6-0-0 out of that .. I was talking to Frank abut the prices and the cards, he says take down the card and don't put one up at all, and charge according to who they are, what do you say to that .. also he told me to tell you that there is no pay-offs now next door, they pay off in Belfast so that is also a loss to Biz [business], and also look at the number of men in prison out of Dublin .. and now we will not have the bustle of the Custom House crowd so putting all together it is rich. However darling you are strong and heart