Letter from James Stephens to John MacDonagh, 24 August 1916 Letters 1916-1923 James Stephens

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 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

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A letter from James Stephens to John MacDonagh (1880-1961). Stephens refers to the posthumous publication of some of the poems of John's brother, Thomas MacDonagh (1878-1916), one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, executed for his part in the Easter Rising. Stephens writes that John that all the poems he sent can be published. He notes that he did not 'care for' some of the poems and others were 'carelessly written' and would have been reworked by MacDonagh if he had lived, but that they should be preserved nonetheless. He also suggests a later, 'representative' edition of MacDonagh's work. The collection was edited by Stephens and published later in the year under the title 'The Poetical Works of Thomas MacDonagh'.James Stephens (1880?-1950) was a writer who witnessed the events of the Easter Rising and published a famous account, 'The Insurrection in Dublin'. John MacDonagh was an actor, playwright and theatre manager who fought under Thomas during the Rising and later worked for RTE.

 National Library of Ireland Thomas MacDonagh Family Papers, Collection List No. 131, Ms. 20,648/2 https://letters1916.ie/item/288 English James Stephens 1916-08-24 John MacDonagh Male Culture and the Arts

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 Dear Mr MacDonagh I have read through the poems you left with me & think that they might be all printed. A few of them I do not care for, & some are very carelessly written — Tommy would have settled them if he had lived. But in this edition it is better to preserve all that can be preserved, and, later on, a selection might be made from his verse which would be representative of our poor friend at his best. I hope the publishers will let me have a proof of the few lines I wrote as preface. Yours very truly James Stephens Augt. 24 th1916 Written sideways down the right hand side of the page By the way, the bulk of them of them were written three or four years ago for I remember him repeating them to me James Stephens Letter from James Stephens to John MacDonagh, 24 August 1916 John MacDonagh Letter from James Stephens to John MacDonagh, 24 August 1916Letter from John MacDonagh to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 1916