The Poems of Joseph Mary Plunkett. Dublin: Talbot Press, 1916. First Edition. Frontispiece portrait plate by Grace Plunkett. Pp xvi, 95. quarter linen paper boards, title label to spine, with title lettered in red to upper cover. Boards scuffed along edges and a little dust soiled, mild spotting throughout contents pages. Housed in a collector’s solander box.

Signed by Grace Plunkett adjacent to her facsimile Signature on the Frontispiece. A unique item thus.  

This collection of Joseph Mary Plunkett’s poetry was published posthumously by his sister, Geraldine Plunkett Dillon. She introduced the collection in her foreword, which was written in June 1916, giving an overview of her brother’s short life as well as some of the poetry included in the collection

Born Grace Gifford, Grace Plunkett  showed early artistic talent and was educated at the Metropolitan School of Art and the Slade, becoming a fixture on the Dublin arts scene by the 1910s and producing humorous illustrations for numerous publications and artwork for suffragette organisations while becoming increasingly involved in republican politics. In 1915 she became engaged to the poet and revolutionary Joseph Plunkett, a key organiser of the 1916 rising, and converted to Catholicism shortly afterwards. Joseph Plunkett was executed for his role in the Easter Rising on 4 May 1916; he and Grace had been married in the prison chapel some hours beforehand. After the civil war, she took on ‘commercial work and costume design’ for the Abbey Theatre from the 1920s.

[Provenance: From the library of Michael Kehoe, a major GAA & republican figure in Wexford, who served as the 16th president of the Gaelic Athletic Association]