This letter was sent by Patrick Henry Pearse (1879-1916), a writer and school headmaster. A key member of the military council of the IRB who planned the Easter Rising, Pearse was one of the signatories of the proclamation of the Irish republic (largely his own writing), which he read outside the GPO at the outbreak of the Rising. As president of the provisional government Pearse called for the surrender and was executed on 3 May 1916. Pearse's mother, Margaret Pearse (1857-1932) kept Pearse's school, St Enda's, open after his death and was later elected as a TD. This letter from Pearse was sent to Mr. O’Danaher and concerns Mr O'Danaher's son, Tom, who is a pupil at St Enda's. Pearse tells O'Danaher that Christmas vacation starts at 1 p.m. on 17 December for three weeks. He asks for the Tom's travelling arrangements Tom and gives a summary of how Tom has being getting on at school. The reverse of the page is blotted but appears to be notes made by somebody else on the O’Danaher family.