Typed copy of a letter, purportedly by an Irishwoman, addressed to a lady resident in England [Nannie Dryhurst or her daughter Sylvia Lynd?], describing the 'butchery' inflicted on her son, killed by the British during or after the Clonmult Ambush.

2pp., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. One minor manuscript emendation (see below). Dated at the head 'March 3rd. 1921' and addressed to 'Madam'. Part of the letter was published - lacking the first sentence and all of the second page, and with the name 'Clonmult' omitted - in the second volume of the 'News Letter of the Friends of Irish Freedom, National Bureau of Information, Washington', where it was preceded by: 'The following is the story of an Irish mother, who relates, in a letter received by a lady resident in England, how she was called to a military barracks in Ireland to identify her dead son:' The letter begins: 'Madam, | I beg to acknowledge with grateful thanks the sum of £1. I am one of the mothers of the boys who was killed at Clonmult on February 20th., [sic] He [amended in manuscript from 'he'] was only 19 years old, and as fine a young man as you would wish to see, and I his mother that saw him only three weeks previous to his death when I went up to Cork barracks to identify him I really at first could only recognise his hair - Oh! my goodness what a butchery they gave those 12 young men. To my dying day I wont [sic] forget the sight that met my eyes when that dead house door was opened, to see all those fine young men thrown like dogs on the floor labeled "on H.M.S." and each one having a number, and their poor feet tied with ropes. My poor boy was just inside the door, his poor face all broke up, his eyes were broke in his head, his mouth broke and twisted, and all his teeth in his mouth, one arm completely cut off, and not one inch of his poor body but bayonet wounds, you could easily see they were bayonet wounds as ll his coat and pants were cut through, and one great big hole just up at his neck like as if they drove the bayonet to the butt and turned it round'. Here the published extract ends, but the author goes on to describe how her husband has been '12 months idle the end of this month, he is gone to work yesterday thank God', and that her '4 little children' have been 'often hungry and would be worse only I went out working myself to try and keep the home over us, and anywhere that poor boy tried to get employment the police prevented him, also his father, so thank God he is at rest'. She asserts that she 'could write a book on the way I and my family are persecuted by police and military during the past 18 months, torn out of bed at all hours of the night, my house and place all upset.' From the Dryhurst/Lynd papers.