AN original copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic sold for a hammer price of €130,000 at Matthews online sale from Kells, Co. Meath this evening. Originally the leaders of the 1916 Rising planned to print about 2,000. Only 500 or so were actually produced. A scarcity of paper (the paper used was of the poorest quality, supplied by Saggart Mills), and the metal-type employed,affected its layout and design.
The printed copies were run-off a dilapidated Summit Wharfdale Stop Cylinder Press operated by three men: Christopher Brady, the printer, and two compositors, Michael Molly and Liam O Brien. Most were destroyed when the British Army stormed Liberty Hall. The few that remained were pasted up on walls in and around Dublin on Easter Monday morning. Most of these were destroyed soon after being posted. In is now believed that only about 20 or so intact copies survived, with about three in private hands. This particular copy last changed hands at the Adams Independence sale of 2006 when it made a hammer price of €200,000.
