Letter from Patrick Pearse to his mother Margaret Pearse, 3 May 1916

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from Patrick Pearse to his mother Margaret Pearse, 3 May 1916

1 Mrs Pearse, St. Enda's College, Rathfarnham, or Cullenswood House, Oakley Road, Ranelagh Kilmainham Prison, Dublin 3 rd May 1916 My Dearest Mother, I have been hoping up to now
that it would be possible for me to see you again,
but it does not seem possible. Goodbye, dear,
dear Mother. Through you I say goodbye to Wow- Wow,
M.B., Willie, Miss Byrne, Miceal, Cousin Maggie,
and everyone at St. Enda's. I hope and believe
that Willie and the St. Enda's boys will be
safe. I have written two papers about financial
affairs and one about my books which I want you
to get. With them are a few poems which I want
added to the poems of mine in MS. in the large
bookcase. You asked me to write a little poem
which would seem to be said by you about me.
I have written it and one copy is at Arbour Hill
Barracks with the other papers, and Father
Aloysius is taking charge of another copy of it. I have just received Holy Communion.
I am happy except for the great grief of
parting from you. This is the death I should have
asked for if God had given me the choice of all
deaths, â€” to die a soldier's death for Ireland and
for freedom. We have done right. People will say hard
things of us now, but later on they will praise us. 2 Do not grieve for all this, but think of it as
a sacrifice which God asked of me and of you. Good - bye again, dear dear mother. May
God Bless you for your great love for me and
for your great Faith, and may he remember all
that you have so bravely suffered. I hope
soon to see Papa, and in a little while we
shall all be together again. Wow, Wow, Willie,
Mary Brigid and mother, Good- bye. I have
not words to tell my love of you, and how
my heart yearns to you all. I will call to
you in my heart at the last moment. Your son Pat .
3 William Pearse Kilmainham Prison Dublin 3 rd May 1916 Dear old Billy Good bye and God Bless you for all your
faithful work for me at St. Enda's and elsewhere.
No one can ever have had so true a brother as you. P.
4 A Mother Speaks Dear mary, that didst see thy first-born Son,
Go forth to die amid the scorn of men
for whom he died, Receive my first-born son into thy arms,
Who also hath gone out to die for men,
And keep him by thee till I come to him.
Dear Mary, I have shared thy sorrow,
And soon shall share thy joy. P. H. Pearse .

This is a handwritten copy of the last letter Patrick Pearse (1879-1916) wrote to his mother Margaret (1857-1932) before his execution. The letter is not in Pearse's handwriting. In the letter he says goodbye to his mother, siblings and friends, and refers to financial affairs and some poems he has written. He writes that he has received Holy Communion, that he is prepared to die and claims that 'people will say hard things of us now but later on they will praise us.'There is a second letter of Pearse's copied on to the sheet. This is to his brother Willie (1881-1916), whom Pearse had not realised was due to be executed himself. The third section of the sheet contains the text of the poem 'A Mother Speaks', a poem written by Pearse in Arbour Hill Barracks. Although the letter is a copy, it has the stamp of Kilmainham Detention Barracks upon it, and is dated (by the stamp) 3 May 1916. This suggests that the copy was made within the Barracks itself.Patrick Henry Pearse, writer, educationalist, and revolutionary, was born 10 November 1879 at the family home, 27 Great Brunswick Street (latterly Pearse St.) Dublin, the elder son and second of the four children of James Pearse, stone carver and monumental sculptor, originally of London, and his second wife, Margaret (qv), a shop assistant, daughter of Patrick Brady, coal factor, of Dublin. Pearse was a key member of the military council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and was one of the signatories of the proclamation of the Irish republic (largely his own writing), which he read outside the GPO after the outbreak of the Easter Rising. As president of the provisional government, it was Pearse who called the surrender. He was executed on 3 May 1916.

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How to cite

Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__0854.html)