The handwritten note, embossed with MacNeill's (1867-1945) home address, was delivered to volunteers in the Kildare area.Eoin MacNeill was an Irish scholar, nationalist politician and founder of the Irish Volunteers. In 1916 MacNeill was led to believe, through a forged document, that a crackdown on the Volunteers by the British authorities was imminent. This prompted him to order a general mobilisation for the Easter weekend. When he learned the truth about the forgery, the seizure of German arms and arrest of Roger Casement, he sent messengers around the country ordering a general demobilisation, following this up with an advertisement in the Sunday Independent. He succeeded in delaying the Rising by one day and confining it largely to Dublin and was subsequently arrested.