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57 Moyderville Tralee May 9.1916 Dear Mr. O'Donnell, In reply to yours of
26th inst.re
the 10 rifles & bayonets lent
us on the 7th March 1915,
please note that on the day
the colours were blessed at
the Race-course, 7 rifles and
bayonets were given in at
Mr. Liston's office. Of the
remaining 3,
2 are at Mr. John Heffernan's Farmers' Bridge
1 is at Mr. Ml Ahern's Caherleaheen. Yours truly, John Reidy F. O'Donnell Esqr Billy Dunne has one
Letter from Frank Hugh O'Donnell (1846-1916) to the Honorary Secretary of the Kerry
County Board of the National Volunteers, 1916. The writer is accounting for 10 rifles
and bayonets which had been lent to him in March, 1915.Frank 'Francis' Hugh O'Donnell
was an Irish nationalist and politican. In 1877, O’Donnell secured election to the
House of Commons as MP for Dungarven, County Waterford. O’Donnell clashed with Parnell
for leadership of the Home Rule party, eventually abandoning the Irish Parliamentary
Party to co-found the National Democratic League and serve as its president 1904–6.
Opposing the service of Irishmen on the British side in the South Africa war, he wrote
an anti-recruiting pamphlet for the Irish National Club.