Postcard of Enniscorthy leaders

Postcard with an image of a shamrock overlaid with head and shoulder portraits of Seamus Rafter, Seán Etchingham, and Robert Brennan. Caption reads "Sentenced to Death ; sentence commuted to Five Year's Penal Servitude".

Stamped "National Library of Ireland Joly Collection". Physical description: 1 postcard print : in mylar. b&w ; 9.5 x 14 cm ; In collection: Ceannt and O'Brennan Papers, 1851-1953. (National Library of Ireland)

Robert Brennan was a republican, journalist and writer. He was responsible for organising the IRB in Wexford during the Easter Rising. As one of the leaders he narrowly escaped execution, sentenced instead to penal servitude. Hew was the first secretary of the Dáil Éireann Department of Foreign Affairs during the War of Independence, and later the Irish Minister to the USA during WWII.

Sean Etchingham was a journalist and politician. During the Rising he served as an officer in the Wexford branch of the Irish Volunteers. Afterwards he was sentenced to execution, but as with Brennan, this was commuted to a prison sentence. Etchingham contested the 1922 general election as an anti-treaty Sinn Féin candidate in Wexford but was defeated. Thereafter his failing health and the civil war excluded him from political activity.

(Biographical information taken from The Dictionary of Irish Biography.)