[USA President; Ireland: Conscription Crisis of 1918.] Two printed items by O’Neill, Lord Mayor of Dublin, as Chairman of the Mansion House Conference, protesting British actions, one to the American President, the other to the American Ambassador.

Although large numbers of Irishmen had willingly signed up to fight for the British cause in the First World War, by April 1918 a shortage of troops moved the British government to propose conscription in Ireland. This was violently opposed by republicans, and O’Neill convened an Irish Anti-Conscription Committee which met at the Mansion House in Dublin. Strikes and protests followed, and although a law was passed, conscription was never implemented in Ireland. These two items are now extremely scarce. The NLI does appear to possess copies of the first of the two; whether it has a copy of the second is unclear; and although other editions are listed on JISC and WorldCat (one edited by Crawford Hartnell, and the other, published by the IACC, titled ‘No Conscription! Ireland’s Case re-stated’), they do not appear to list copies of the present, whose association with a Dublin newspaper (although the two are printed on watermarked wove paper) suggest that they probably pre-date the other editions. The owner of the work, J. N. MacPhail, was a Scottish antiquary. The two items are nicely housed in a modern purpose-made hard card folder of dark-green cloth, with white paper label on front cover with printed title. Both documents with all leaves carrying the watermark of the ‘IRISH / INDEPENDENT / DUBLIN’. ONE. Title: ‘TO THE PRESIDENT / OF THE / UNITED STATES / OF / AMERICA’. 12pp, 8vo. Stapled. Ownership signature at top left of cover: ‘J R N Macphail’. Ends (p.12): ‘Given at the Mansion House, Dublin, this 11th day of June, 1918. / LAURENCE O’NEILL, / LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN, / Chairman of a Conference / of representative Irishmen whose names stand hereunder:- / [col.a] JOSEPH DEVLIN, / JOHN DILLON, [col.b] MICHAEL EGAN, / THOMAS JOHNSON, / WILLIAM O’BRIEN, [LABOUR.] / [col.c] T. M. HEALY, / WILLIAM O’BRIEN, [col.d] THOMAS KELLY, / JOHN MACNEILL, / Acting in the place of / E. DE VALERA / and / A. GRIFFITHS, / deported 18th May, 1918, to separate prisons in England, without trial or accusation – communication with whom has been cut of.’ On worn and discoloured paper, with grubby cover. Previously folded into packet, with central vertical and horizontal folds. Begins: ‘SIR, / When a century and a half ago, the American Colonies dared to assert the ancient principle that the subject should not be taxed without the consent of his representatives, England strove to crush them. To-day England threatens to crush the people of Ireland if they do not accept a tax, not in money but in blood, against the protest of their representatives.’ The complaint centres on the fact that, ‘In the fourth year of a war ostensibly begun for the defence of small nations, a law conscribing the manhood of Ireland has been passed, in defiance of the wishes of our people’, after ‘the Irish Parliament has been destroyed’. TWO. Headed: ‘[COPY.] / Mansion House, / Dublin, / 18th June, 1918. / TO HIS EXCELLENCY / THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR.’ Ends: ‘I have the honour, Your Excellency, to subscribe myself, with profound respect, / Your obedient Servant, / L. O’NEILL, / LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN.’ 1p, 8vo. As with Item One, ownership signature at top left of cover: ‘J R N Macphail’. Begins: ‘SIR, / I was deputed, by a representative Conference of Irishmen assembled in Dublin, to proceed to Washington to place in the hands of the President of the United States an Address by them agreed to. The office which I hold made me seem a not unfitting messenger for that purpose.’ Later he states that it has ‘seemed good to the British Foreign Office to refuse to allow me to be the bearer of the Address unless its terms were first submitted to the Right Hon. Lord French of Ypres, Field Marshal, Lord Lieutenant and Governor-General of Ireland.’ Ends: ‘It is not proposed to make any publication of the Address here, before the 4th of July, by which date it is hoped it will have reached Washington.’