This letter is the most important historical document in the museum

Appointing Dáil Éireann’s delegation for the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations, the letter includes signed instructions from Éamon de Valera, who had recently been chosen as Dáil President by his colleagues.

This is one of five original copies, and for 40 years the document languished at the back of a filing cabinet in a law firm on Ormond Quay. The exact role and powers of the plenipotentiaries would de disputed in the bitter debate that surrounded the Dáil’s ratification of the Treaty.