4 - Letter from Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap. to Elizabeth O’Farrell

4

Letter from Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap. to Elizabeth O’Farrell

4 pp; Manuscript

A letter from Fr. Augustine Hayden OFM Cap. to Elizabeth O’Farrell recounting the events of the Easter Rising. The letter is dated 7 February 1953 and reads:
‘… I was very pleased to read your very accurate account of when and where you met Father Columbus [Murphy] at that time when I happened to be Guardian (superior) of our Friary at Church Street.
It will interest you to learn that actually I did not hear of the surrender at the GPO, nor at the Four Courts until the following (Sunday) morning at 6.55 when Fr. Columbus returned to the Friary and told me when I was waiting to say the 7 o’clock Mass.
For some reason or other the military concealed both surrenders from me though I had been speaking to them twice that afternoon and evening. I actually spoke to our grand boys from the street where North King Street crosses Church Street above the Father Mathew Hall where I had been all that afternoon. I actually got a truce until the following morning [between] the boys and the military each promising not to fire if the other did not fire. …’.

ISAD(G) 2nd edition