The Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism confirmed yesterday that it was examining the provenance of a letter written by Patrick Pearse before his execution and which is due to be auctioned in Dublin later today.
Questions have been raised about whether the letter - one of three written by Pearse on the eve of his death - was left to the State by his sister, Margaret Pearse, or handed as a gift to a private individual.
Dated May 2nd, 1916, and addressed to the commanding officer of British forces in Ireland, Gen John Maxwell, the letter asks that business statements, poems and money be given to Pearse's mother and sister. With a note of receipt from Gen Maxwell, it is for sale at the Independence auction organised by Adam's and Mealy's auctioneers. They carry an estimate of €50,000-€70,000.
However, former curator of the Pearse Museum and Kilmainham Gaol, Pat Cooke, has argued that the State should examine the ownership of the document.
Before her death in 1968, Margaret Pearse signed an indenture leaving all the contents of St Enda's, from where Pearse had run his school, to the State.
While there remains uncertainty as to whether this letter was among the items kept at St Enda's at the time of her death, Mr Cooke has asked that the anonymity surrounding its current holders be removed in order to remove any possible doubt over who has the right to sell it. "It's for the person who possesses that document to tell us how it came into their possession," said Mr Cooke, who from 1981 to 2006 was curator of the Pearse Museum, at the former site of St Enda's in Rathfarnham, Dublin.
"Otherwise, in my opinion, the default position is that the State has title to everything in Margaret Pearse's collection that other people can't prove legitimate title to."
The auctioneers, however, have vigorously denied that there is any doubt over the letter's ownership.
"We're very happy about the provenance," said Stuart Cole, a director of Adam's. "The person who owns it is somebody who is known to us and somebody who is of absolutely irreproachable character. And I'm more than satisfied that he has the legitimate right to sell it."
Confusion over the letter's ownership has arisen largely because of a reference made to it in the book, Last Words, written by Piaras Mac Lochlainn, keeper of the museum at Kilmainham Gaol. Published in 1971, the book said that the document was among several handed to Margaret Pearse in 1946 by the family of a British soldier who had taken them to England.
It said that the documents were presumed missing, before adding in footnotes that some of them had come to light in St Enda's after the death of Ms Pearse, and that: "As stated above, only one letter to Maxwell has come to light (and it does not refer to the surrender)."
If the letter was present in St Enda's after Margaret Pearse's death, then the State would have a claim to it.
However, while Mr Cole would not divulge the identity of the letter's current holder, or of how it came into that person's possession, he insisted it was freely given by Margaret Pearse.
"It was absolutely given as a gift," he said, adding that the auctioneers always went "to great lengths" to establish the provenance of items. The Pearse Museum yesterday declined to comment on the matter.
A statement from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism yesterday said the matter "is currently being examined by the relevant section and cultural institution".
