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            <title type="main">Letter from Stephen Purcell to Anna O'Rahilly, 24 December 1916</title>
            <title type="sub">Letters 1916-1923</title>
            <author>Stephen Purcell</author>
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            <pubPlace>Vienna, AT</pubPlace>
            <date>2026</date>
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               <p>This is a letter from Stephen Purcell (b. 1875) to Anna O'Rahilly, the sister of Michael Joseph O'Rahilly (1875-1916). The letter discusses the author's eyesight and the reasons he has not been to Dublin. It goes on to discuss the threat of conscription, suggesting that it may push people to the last extreme. It also discusses a bishop who people are now looking to for guidance.Michael Joseph O'Rahilly, self-described as 'The' O'Rahilly, was involved in the procurement of arms in the lead-up to the Rising and was involved in the Howth gun-running incident. He fought in the G.P.O. During the Rising and was shot in Parnell/Moore Street on 28 April 1916 and died some time later. Nancy O'Rahilly (1875-1961),</p>
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              <date>1915-12-24</date>
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                Parteen  Limerick    Dec 24<hi rend="superscript">th</hi> 15   My dear Miss Rahilly   It is some time<lb/> now since I wrote to you <lb/> to say I would go to<lb/> see you. At this time<lb/> I felt my sight failing.<lb/> The eyes have improved<lb/> a good deal since I<lb/> wrote but I was thinking<lb/> from day to day that<lb/> it would be necessary<lb/> for me to go to Dublin  
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              Thats why I have been<lb/> silent so long â We are<lb/> living in awful times.<lb/> One does not know from<lb/> day to day what is to<lb/> come next. I am afraid<lb/> they will attempt<lb/> conscription &amp; if they<lb/> do it will be resisted<lb/> fiercely. A great majority <lb/> of the people seem<lb/> indifferent about every <lb/> public event, but I feel that<lb/> they would resist <lb/> - conscription to the last<lb/> extreme -  
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              The Bishop has made himself known <lb/> in the outside world more than ever<lb/> I dare say to the great surprise<lb/> of some of his friends. He was put <lb/> down for a Tory &amp; a Conservative â<lb/> Most people now since his letters<lb/> look to him for guidance in a very <lb/> different arena. Wishing you &amp; M<hi rend="superscript">rs</hi> A<lb/> &amp; all the children a happy xmas &amp; many<lb/> returns -  <seg type="closer"> sincerely  S. Purcell </seg> 
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               <persName>Anna O'Rahilly</persName>
            <noteGrp><note target="item__0130.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Bridie O'Rahilly to Anna O'Rahilly, 25 May 1916</note><note target="item__0131.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Denis Mangan to Anna O'Rahilly, 11 August 1916.</note><note target="item__0138.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Lieutenant Colonel R. L. Owens to Anna O'Rahilly, 28 May 1916</note><note target="item__0139.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Lieutenant Colonel R. L. Owens to Anna O'Rahilly, 29 May 1916</note><note target="item__0140.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Kenneth Healings to Anna O'Rahilly, c. August 1916</note><note target="item__0160.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Patrick Hayes to Anna O'Rahilly, 13 May 1916</note><note target="item__0161.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Patrick Hayes to Anna O'Rahilly, 23 August 1916</note><note target="item__0165.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Stephen Purcell to Anna O'Rahilly, 24 December 1916</note><note target="item__0166.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Maud Griffith to Anna O'Rahilly, 13 September 1916</note><note target="item__0167.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Sister M. Marcella to Anna O'Rahilly, 20 July 1916</note><note target="item__1356.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Anna O'Rahilly to Mabel FitzGerald, 25 May 1916</note><note target="item__1841.xml" type="mentions">Letter from John O'Brien to Anna O'Rahilly, 1916</note><note target="item__1843.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Ella Young to Anna O'Rahilly, 13 July 1916</note><note target="item__1844.xml" type="mentions">Letter from S. M. O'Meara to Anna O'Rahilly</note></noteGrp></person>
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            <noteGrp><note target="item__0165.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Stephen Purcell to Anna O'Rahilly, 24 December 1916</note><note target="item__0635.xml" type="mentions">Letter from C. Moran to Bishop E. T. O'Dwyer, 15 August 1916</note><note target="item__0636.xml" type="mentions">Letter from W. H. Grattan Flood to Bishop E. T. O'Dwyer, 15 September 1916</note><note target="item__0638.xml" type="mentions">Letter from General John Grenfell Maxwell to Bishop Edward Thomas O'Dwyer, 6 May 1916</note><note target="item__0640.xml" type="mentions">Letter from General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell to Bishop Edward Thomas O'Dwyer, 12 May 1916</note><note target="item__1900.xml" type="mentions">Letter from William M. Nolan to Robert Chalmers, 2 June 1916</note><note target="item__2464.xml" type="mentions">Letter from Kate O'Donnell to Dr Edward Thomas O'Dwyer, 10 June 1916</note><note target="item__2683.xml" type="mentions">Letter from the Limerick City Regiment of the Irish Volunteers to Bishop E. T. O'Dwyer, 14 September 1916</note><note target="item__4420.xml" type="mentions">Letter from G. Craig to J. S. Gaffney, 20 June 1916</note></noteGrp></place>
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