2016
June Document of the Month
(NAI, Probate of Seán MacDiarmada, Principal Registry, 23 June 1916)
The June Document of the Month is the last will and testament of Seán MacDiarmada, written in Kilmainham Gaol on the 12 May 1916, the day of his execution for his role in the 1916 Rising.
The will appoints John R Reynolds as the sole executor. Reynolds, an accountant based in College Street, was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a participant in the Rising in the GPO. He makes his first of many appearances in the Dublin Metropolitan Police movement of Dublin extremist reports on 11 January 1916 (See NAI, CSO/JD/2/182).
The accompanying Oath for Executor, signed by Reynolds, reveals that MacDiarmada’s total estate was valued at £43.16.0. and that he ‘died at Kilmainham Prison, Kilmainham, in the City of Dublin’.
Also included, is the 1911 census return for MacDiarmada, which he completed in Irish. He is listed as a lodger in a house at 15 Russell Place. The head of the household, Elizabeth Dunne, a 32 year old widow, is one of the witnesses to his last will and testament. The second witness, Mary Josephine Ryan, was romantically involved with MacDiarmada and later married Richard Mulcahy.
