Terence MacSwiney L.Mayor Files Descriptive List (Ref. PR4)

and copy outgoing letters in English, Irish and French. Although the collection covers the period from 1919 to 1920 most of the documents concentrate on the period of March to July 1920 and are primarily administrative. There are however two distinct themes, MacSwiney as Lord Mayor of Cork, and as the Commanding Officer of Cork No.1 Brigade, Irish Volunteers. The original order has been maintained and the collection divided into six sections each representing an individual file. Within each file the documents have been rearranged to reflect chronological order as this had become disordered. The only file originally named was File 2 labelled 'Finance' which includes correspondence concerning the establishment of an Irish taxation department, the accumulation of revenue from the renewal of licences and the collection of money for the Dáil Éireann Loan in Cork. However these themes are not exclusive to this particular file and neither do they dominate it. This is a common trait in all six files for although they appear to have been kept as separate administrative files by MacSwiney the subject matter throughout the collection continuously overlaps. The principle correspondents are Diarmuid O'Hegarty, Secretary Dáil Éireann, Austin Stack, Substitute Minister for Home Affairs, Michael Collins, Minister for Finance and Kevin O'Higgins, Substitute Minister for Local Government. To a lesser extent there are also letters from Liam de Róiste, T.D., Desmond Fitzgerald, Director of Propaganda, Arthur Griffith, Acting President Dáil Éireann and Daniel Corkery. In terms of the Irish Volunteer movement Gearóid O'Sullivan, Adjutant General and Richard Mulcahy, Chief of Staff are the main correspondents. Letters are also exchanged with the Commanding Officers of Cork No.3 Brigade, Tom Hales and the 6th Battalion Commandant, T.S. O'Gorbidhe. The main themes overlapping in the files are the establishment and early workings of the National Arbitration Courts, the separation from English Local Government to Irish Local Government, the foundation of an Irish taxation system and the collection of funds in Mid Cork and Cork City for the Dáil Éireann Loan Fund. The foundation of a nation-wide regional judicial system is particularly emphasised in MacSwiney's correspondence with Austin Stack, Substitute Minister for Home Affairs. There are a number of requests and reports commenting on the progress of MacSwiney's constituency in setting up Republican Courts (PR4/2/1) and a continuous eagerness to show these courts to American journalists (PR4/4/63). One of the earliest working tests and frequent subject in the papers is the case of R. Power, Tramore, County Waterford whose action highlights the starting difficulties and resolutions of this new system. (PR4/2/3, PR4/6/15). This eagerness on the part of MacSwiney and his contemporaries is equally apparent in the weight of correspondence regarding the establishment of a financially independent country. MacSwiney, Michael Collins, Minister for Finance and to a lesser extent Liam de Róiste, T.D., converse over the amount of money or gold collected for the Dáil

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