Pearse letter on display in Navan 1916 exhibition

A letter from Padriag Pearse is the centrepiece of an exhibition currently running at the Solsitice Art Gallery in Navan.
'When The Dawn is Come: 1916 and Meath’ runs until this Saturday 4th June, presented by Solstice and Meath County Council Library Service.
The letter is written by Pearse to an associate, Fr Patrick Smith, who was born in Kilskyre and was serving in Castlepollard parish at the time. It starts by commenting on Gwynn. This is, in all likelihood, Stephen Gwynn (1864-1950). He was an Irish journalist, biographer, author, poet and Protestant Nationalist politician and an MP for Galway city in the House of Commons. He served as an officer during World War I.
During this period he was active in the Gaelic League and had close links to the Irish literary revival. He strongly supported Redmond’s encouragement of Irish nationalists and the Irish National Volunteers to enlist in Irish regiments and fight in WW1, especially as a means to ensure the implementation of the suspended Home Rule Act at the end of the war.
It seems that the newspaper Pearse envisaged to promote the upcoming Rising, the Shan Van Vocht, was never published. The Tom and Sean in the letter are Thomas Clarke and Sean MacDiarmada, two signatories of the Proclamation and the planned meeting in Kent’s house refers to Eamonn Ceannt, also a signatory. All three, and Pearse, were executed in May 1916 for their parts in the Rising. The letter was donated to the library by the Conway family of Ballivor.
Also featured is Mary Gibbons, who was born in Collinstown, County Westmeath in 1873 and trained as a teacher at Baggot Street Training College in the 1890s. There she formed a friendship with Sinéad Flanagan who later married Éamon De Valera. Both women were involved in the cultural nationalism of the early twentieth century. She joined the Loreto Order in 1903 and trained at St Anne’s Convent in Navan, where she was appointed principal of the primary school. Her song entitled 'Who Fears to Speak of Easter Week?’ is based on John Kells Ingrams’ 'The Memory of the Dead’.
Other exhibits include a portrait of Brian O’Higgins by Una Watters, his wife’s niece, The Meath Chronicle bound volume from 1916, a banner of the Navan branch of the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge), artefacts from the Irish Volunteers, ”glaigh na hÉireann, including a period holster, a Cumann na mBan medal for service, and an original Francis Ledwidge letter, where the Slane poet anticipates his own death. He was killed preparing for the third battle of Ypres in July 1917.
Desmond Ryan (1893-1964), grew up in Navan where his father was editor of the Irish Peasant newspaper from 1903-1906.
In a recorded tv interview, he talks of his memories of Navan and Meath, and his school and teaching days in St Enda’s with Padraig Pearse.
Council Minute books record the almost universal official condemnation of the Rising by all public bodies and representatives in the immediate aftermath of the event. Opinions changed during and after the executions of the leaders and opinions still vary today.
The Irish National Foresters Dean Cogan branch, Navan, banner and memorabilia are also on display, as are artefacts from Oldcastle Internment Camp 1914-1918.
County Infirmary records on view list the admissions for the week of the Rising and indicate that many wounded RIC men were treated in the hospital. The hospital operating table dates from the period and is on loan from a private collector.