Letter from Tadhg Barry (1880–1921) to Tomás MacCurtain regarding a plan to try and secure MacCurtain's early release from prison. MacCurtain's reply is copied on the back of the letter. Tomás MacCurtain (1884–1920), republican, was born Thomas Curtin in Ballyknockane, Co. Cork, on 20 March 1884. MacCurtain was a founder member of the Cork executive of the Irish Volunteers, and in the time leading up to the 1916 Rising, he travelled the county organising new Volunteer units. MacCurtain was arrested in Cork in May 1916, and sent to Dublin before being deported to Wakefield prison on 30 May. On 10 June he was moved to Frongoch in north Wales and on 11 July to Reading gaol, where he remained until his release in December 1916. He continued to lead the Cork Volunteers despite being imprisoned on other occasions in 1917. On 30 January 1920 he became the first Sinn Féin lord mayor of Cork. On 20 March 1920, MacCurtain was shot dead in his bedroom a major escalation in the spiral of violence that marked the last year of the war of independence.