LETTER: Seeking information on Thomas Ashe

SIR – My name is Gabriel Doherty. I am lecturer in the School of History, University College Cork, and I am writing in relation to the forthcoming centenary of the death of the famous patriot Thomas Ashe.

Thomas Ashe was one of the most prominent, and popular, members of the revolutionary generation in modern Irish history (c1912-23). A native Irish speaker and language activist, an enthusiastic (and apparently robust) exponent of Gaelic games, a champion of traditional music, a sometime poet and dramatist, and a leading figure in both the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers, his death in Dublin’s Mater Hospital, as a consequence of having been force-fed while on hunger strike in Mountjoy gaol, was a crucial event in the period between the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, with his subsequent funeral one of the largest, and most significant, in Irish history.

A range of local voluntary groups and interested individuals across the country have come together to organise a programme to mark the centenary and, speaking as one of those involved, we hope to be able to release full details of the programme in due course. In the meantime, I would be very interested to hear from any member of the public who may be interested in the commemoration, or who may have some connection to the man – perhaps a family member knew or worked with him, or attended his funeral, or perhaps is in possession of a document or memento relating to him: anything really! 

I can be contacted at the address below, or at [email protected] or 021 4902783.

Yours sincerely,

Gabriel Doherty,

School of History,

University College, 

Cork.