Letter from William O'Brien to Augustine Birrell, 26 February 1916 Letters 1916-1923 William O'Brien

This work was originally published by Maynooth University in Ireland in 2017. In 2026 this data, stored in a relational database was extracted and converted into this TEI/XML document.

 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

This is an open access work licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

This letter was written by William O'Brien (1881 - 1968), the president of the Dublin trades council, to Augustine Birrell (1850-1933), chief secretary for Ireland. Birrell served as chief secretary from 1907 until his retirement in May 1916 in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, for which he accepted responsibility. William O'Brien, was an active labour leader and trade union official. Although O'Brien did not take part in the Easter rebellion of 1916 he was closely involved in its planning. and was interned in Frongoch for a month after its outbreak. Later in his career he became a Labour Party TD for Tipperary.This letter contains a resolution dealing with the control of shipping and protesting government inaction in allowing shipowners 'amass huge fortunes'.

 National Archives of Ireland Chief Secretary's Office Registered Papers, CSO RP/1916/3733/1 https://letters1916.ie/item/1373 English William O'Brien 1916-02-26 Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland. Augustine Birrell Male Industry and Public Administration

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 Dublin United Trades Council and labour league Trades Hall Capel S T. Dublin Feb. 26th. 1916. The Right Hon. A. Birrell, M.P., Chief Secretary For Ireland. . Sir, I am directed to forward you the inclosed resolution dealing with the control of shipping. Faithfully yours, W m O'Brien, Acting Secretary. RESOLUTION X That this Council, representing the workers of Dublin, enters its strongest protest against the inaction of the Government in allowing the shipowners to amass huge fortunes by exploiting the necessities of the people, and declares that the high freightage is almost entirely responsible for the unprecedented increase in the cost of Food; that we demand that the Government shall immediately take over the entire Mercantile Marine, as the only method calculated to be effec- tive in stopping this shameful robbery of the people, which will continue so long as shipping remains a private monopoly. That copies of the foregoing be forwarded to the Prime Minister, the President of the Board of Trade, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Mr. J. E. Redmond, M.P., and Mr. G.J.Wardle, M.P. Augustine Birrell Letter from Brother Vincent O'Kelly to the Chief Secretary, 3 April 1916Letter from Patrick Joseph Brady to Augustine Birrell, 27 Mar 1916Letter from Thomas Gerrard to Augustine Birrell, 29 March 1916Letter from James P. Farrell et al. to Augustine Birrell, 7 April 1916A letter from Francis E. Meehan to Augustine Birrell, 3 April 1916Letter from James Patrick Farrell to Augustine Birrell, 27 March 1916Letter from Edmund Loftus Wickham to Augustine Birrell, 1 May 1916Letter from Margaret May Loughren to Augustine Birrell, 26 March 1916Letter from Hugh O'Brien Moran to Augustine Birrell, 4 May 1916Letter from Lord Hugh Gough to Augustine Birrell, 28 April 1916Letter from Joseph Dowdall to Augustine Birrell, 18 April 1916Letter from William Field to Augustine Birrell, 14 April 1916Letter from J. G. Swift MacNeill to Augustine Birrell, 17 April 1916Letter from William Johnson to the chief secretary, 14 April 1916Letter from Miss Helen Augusta Crofton to Augustine Birrell, 3 May 1916Letter from A. J. Loughborough Ball to Augustine Birrell, 1 May 1916Letter from Mr MJ Murphy to Mr Augustine Birrell, chief secretary for Ireland, 10 November 1916Letter from James Neazor to Augustine Birrell, 6 January 1916Letter from William O'Brien to Augustine Birrell, 26 February 1916Letter from Scott Alexander to Augustine Birrell, 3 March 1916Letter from John Clear to Augustine Birrell, 23 February 1916Letter from Thomas O'Donnell to Augustine Birrell, 9 April 1916Letter from P. Burrowes Shiel to Augustine Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, 27 March 1916.Letter from William Field to Augustine Birrell, 29 March 1916Letter from Alfred Bryne to Augustine Birrell, 30 March 1916Letter from Edward W. Mooney to Augustine Birrell, 4 April 1916Letter from Augustine Birrell to Edward W. Mooney, 5 April 1916Letter from Thomas Henry Grattan Esmonde to Augustine Birrell, 7 April 1916Letter from William Howell Davies to Augustine Birrell, 10 April 1916Letter from Jonathan Pim to Augustine Birrell, 29 March 1916Letter from Sir Bertram Windle to Augustine Birrell, 30 March 1916.Letter from Cecil Harmsworth to Augustine Birrell, 31 March 1916Letter from Jeannie Horner to Augustine Birrell, 4 April 1916Letter from William Seddall to Augustine Birrell, 14 April 1916Letter from Thomas Francis Smyth to Augustine Birrell, 27 March 1916Letter from A. Ross to Augustine Birrell, 30 April 1916Letter from Richard Creighton to Augustine Birrell, 25 April 1916Letter from Joseph Michael Stanley, 29 March 1916Letter from W. A. Tait to the Chief Secretary for Ireland, 13 April 1916Letter from A. Stanford to Augustine Birrell, 1 May 1916Letter from Edmund Blayney Clarke to Augustine Birrell, 29 May 1916Letter from Edmund Blayney Clarke to Augustine Birrell, 23 May 1916Letter from William O'Brien to Augustine Birrell, 26 February 1916Letter from Henry T. Gallagher to Augustine Birrell, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, 29 March 1916 William O'Brien Letter from William Crawford Anderson to William O'Brien, 28 October 1916Letter from Irish Prisoners, Frongoch to William O'Brien, Esq., MP, 14 October 1916Letter from William O'Brien to Augustine Birrell, 26 February 1916Letter from Andrew Philip Magill to William O'Brien, 28 February 1916.Letter from William O'Brien to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 9 November 1915Letter from Frongoch to William O'Brien, 14 October 1916Letter from Andrew Philip Magill to William O'Brien, 28 February 1916Letter from William O'Brien to Augustine Birrell, 26 February 1916 Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland. Letter from William O'Brien to Augustine Birrell, 26 February 1916