Object: Pearse Surrender Order
National Library of Ireland
Object title: Draft signed by P. H. Pearse of the decision by the Republican forces to enter negotiations with the British, written on cardboard picture-mount, 1916 April 29.
Physical Characteristics: The text is written in pencil on cardboard picture mount, taken from the frame of a picture.
Object Description: The item was made by
Padraig Pearse, Commander in Chief of the Irish Republic, after
the rebels had evacuated the General Post Office and were based in
Moore Street on Saturday April 29th 1916.
It states that due to the desire to prevent the further slaughter
of the general population and the wish to save as many of their
followers as possible the Provisional Government wished to open
negotiations for surrender. It was signed by Pearse as a record of
the decision to surrender before they opened negotiations with the
British Army.
How is the object associated with the Easter Rising 1916 and in
what way does it make a unique contribution to our understanding
of the event?
It is a unique object, with the rationale behind the momentous
decision to surrender, written on an everyday item. It does not
look like an important document. The decision to surrender was
contentious and not all the commandants of the other divisions,
and their men, wished to surrender. The draft was left behind
in Number 16 Moore Street. The text can be compared for
similar themes in the formal surrender document.
Discussion point on rationale behind Rising, expectations of
success, blood sacrifice for the cause. If Pearse knew that so
many men would be executed would he have surrendered?
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