Auction Date:2011 Apr 16 @ 13:00 (UTC+1)
Location:The Freemasons Hall - 17 Molesworth Street, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
1919 (April 15-27) Extremely rare "Limerick Soviet" Five Shillings Note
letterpress in back and green on blue paper, manuscript signatures
9 by 14cm., 3.5 by 5.5in.
Inscribed "April LIMERICK 1919/GENERAL STRIKE/AGAINST BRITISH MILITARISM/The Workers of Limerick/ Promise to Pay the bearer/5/- FIVE SHILLINGS 5/-/The Limerick Trades and Labour Council". Numbered 117 and signed in ink by George Cronin, Chairman, and James Casey, Treasurer, with stamp in violet "MECHANICS INSITUTE/[shamrock motif]/LIMERICK.
A rare forerunner for Irish banknote collectors, this is the first currency used by an independent revolutionary movement in Ireland.
The Limerick Soviet was a self-declared administration, named after the committees set up in the Russian Revolution of 1917, that existed from 15 to 27 April 1919. At the beginning of the Irish War of Independence, a general strike was organised by the Limerick Trades and Labour Council, as a protest against the British army's declaration of a "Special Military Area" under the Defence of the Realm Act, which covered Limerick city and parts of Limerick and Clare counties.
A special Strike Committee was set up to print money, control food prices and publish newspapers. The businesses of the city accepted the Soviet’s currency but outside Limerick and to a lesser degree Dublin, there was little sympathy and some large unions, such as the National Union of Railwaymen, did not give support. After two weeks the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Limerick, Alphonsus O'Mara, and the Catholic bishop Denis Hallinan called for the strike to end, and the Strike Committee issued a proclamation on 27 April 1919 stating that the strike was over
Auction Location:
The Freemasons Hall - 17 Molesworth Street, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
Previewing Details:
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