Irish uprising surrender note sold for $1.2m

DUBLIN - A hastily scrawled surrender note by Padraig Pearse marking the end of the 1916 Easter Uprising against Britain was sold at auction on Wednesday for 700,000 euros ($1,253,357).

The order from the schoolteacher who led the uprising was sold to a private collector whose name could not be revealed, a spokeswoman for the auctioneers Adam's, said.

The uprising, centred on the General Post Office in Dublin, was doomed to failure.

After a week of fighting, the post office was ablaze and had to be evacuated. The rebels, facing overwhelming British firepower, surrendered.

Pearse and other nationalist ringleaders were executed within days, but the seeds of independence had been sown for Ireland to become a state in the 1920s.

The note addressed rebels who had not yet surrendered, at the request of a priest who visited Pearse in jail.

In the letter, now creased and perforated with pin holes, Pearse wrote: "In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the provisional government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender.

"Commandants and officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms."

- REUTERS