CLARKE, KATHLEEN. LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN. An attractive New Year remembrance card from the Mansion House, 4 pp (single folded sheet), on heavy paper, specially produced by the Cluna Studio,...

CLARKE, KATHLEEN. LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN. An attractive New Year remembrance card from the Mansion House, 4 pp (single folded sheet), on heavy paper, specially produced by the Cluna Studio, marking the 25th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. The cover with a hand coloured drawing of the General Post Office, Dublin, under a scroll with the date 1916, a Four Provinces shield and a Phoenix flame, inscribed inside with Greetings from [manuscript signature] Caitlín Bean Uí Chléirigh, Lord Mayor.

Kathleen Clarke, a niece of the Limerick Fenian John Daly, was the widow of Tom Clarke, first signatory of the 1916 Proclamation. She had wished to join her husband in the GPO, but was asked to remain at home and prepare to assist the survivors after the Rising. She did so very successfully by establishing the Irish National Aid & Volunteer Dependants Fund, where she gave Michael Collins his first position of responsibility as Secretary.

She opposed the Treaty, and in 1926 joined the new Fianna Fail party and became an executive member. In 1939 she was the first woman to be elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. It is said she declined a request from Eamon de Valera that she should stand aside in favour of Margaret Pearse, reputedly saying to him Tom Clarkes widow stands aside for nobody! She left Fianna Fail in 1944 after criticising the treatment of Republican hunger strikers.

A rare and attractive item, in very good condition.

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