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Henry ‘Harry’ James Boland was born in Dublin in 1887. He was a leading member of the IRB, and in 1913 he was one of the founding members of the Irish Volunteers. Boland took part in the 1916 Easter Rising. After the Rising, Boland was sentenced to 10 years penal servitude, however he served one year in prison and was released in 1917 following the general amnesty. Upon release, Boland was elected to the executive council of Sinn Fein and became a key figure in propaganda. In 1919, Boland was sent to America to aid deValera with the External Dail Loan (Bond Drive). While in America Boland also began to work of pertaining and smuggling guns that could be used in the fight for Irish independence. Several successful purchases were made, however a shipment of 495 sub-machine guns was confiscated at Hoboken. Upon returning to Ireland in time to vote against the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Boland left the Dail with deValera and other anti-treatyites. He took part in the civil war and died as a result of gunshot wounds in 1922. William Burke Cockran (1854-1922) was born in Sligo. He completed his education in Summerhill college, Sligo and the Marist College in Lille, France. In 1871 Cockran immigrated to America. While working as a teacher he studied law at night. In 1876 he passed the bar; he practiced in Mount Vernon for two years before moving to New York to practice law. His legal career was constrained by an interest in politics. In 1903 Cockran returned to Ireland and was made a freeman of the borough of Sligo, at this time he was a vigorous supporter of Home Rule. Cockran protested against the execution of the leaders of the 1916 Rising, and also condemned the introduction of martial law in Ireland in 1919. In December 1919, while working on the Dail Eireann Bond Certificates and Bond Drive he called for formal American recognition of the Irish Republican Government. In this letter Boland informs Cockran that Eamon deValera will arrive in New York ‘next Thursday’ which was 27 November 1919. The purpose of the visit was to give his ‘personal attention to the bond drive’. The bond drive was an attempt to raise money for the Dail in the form of the First External Dail Loan. Boland asks Cockran about ‘assum[ing] the direction of New York while the State Chairman was absent. Boland intends to support to Cockran in this role.
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