1 2 Loretto Villas, Bray. 24th May, 1916. Dear Sir, My husband, Mr.Desmond Fitzgerald, was tried by Field
General Court Martial on Tuesday, 16th May, and sentenced to 20
years penal servitude. The sentence was confirmed on 20th May,
10 years being remitted. Mr.Fitzgerald held no rank whatever in the Volunteers
and though in the G.P.O. during the Rebellion was there as a non-combatant.
He was neither trained nor equipped to fight and merely
helped in the distribution of food and in Red Cross work.
At his trial Lieut.King, one of the British Officer prisoners i
in the G.P.O. made a written deposition stating that my husband
wore civilian clothes and was not to his knowledge engaged in
the fighting at all, and that he treated him while a prisoner
with great kindness and consideration. I understand from my husband that the only evidence a
against him was his own statement thatwhich he made voluntarily
that t he was in the Post Office and that he performed certain
non-combatant duties there. He was arrested at home on Wed.
10th May. As Mr.Fitzgerald was in Mountjoy Prison from October
last till within three weeks of the Rebellion on a sentence of
six months for a Nationalist speech he had made here at Bray it
is obvious that he would have had no share in plans for the Rebellion. As, therefore, he was neither responsible for it, nor
took a prominent XXXX or even a belligerent part in it, his
sentence is quite disproportionately severe even among sentences
which are all harsh, and I shall be grateful if you will bear the
above facts in mind and if opportunity arises will press his
claim to a proper trial with a view to revision of the sentence in
in accordance with the evidence, or will take whatever other
action you think suitable, recognising however that my husband
while welcoming inquiry into his case, does not in any wise disassociate
himself from his friends whom circumstances placed in
the position of combatants. I am,
Yours faithfully, Mabel W.Fitzgerald P.S. It would give great satisfaction generally in Ireland f
if conditions of political imprisonment could be obtained for
the prisoners sentenced to terms of Penal Servitude; at least
they might be permitted to keep their own clothes.