Theobald Wolfe Tone’s father preserved his son’s bloodstained pocketbook (or wallet) as a reminder of Wolfe Tone’s sacrifice for Irish liberty. On November 11, 1798, Wolfe Tone wrote his last words in this pocketbook: a line in Latin from the ancient Roman poet Virgil, which translates to, “Now, for its second master, it has thee.” Later that night Wolfe Tone slit his own throat in jail, hours before his execution for treason, and died a week later in Dublin. The pocketbook was presented to the National Museum of Ireland in 1936 through the efforts of Éamon de Valera, the famed Irish Revolutionary of the 1900s.

Pocketbook
1790s
Leather, Silk, Silver, Ink
© National Museum of Ireland

Theobald Wolfe Tone’s father preserved his son’s bloodstained pocketbook (or wallet) as a reminder of Wolfe Tone’s sacrifice for Irish liberty. On November 11, 1798, Wolfe Tone wrote his last words in this pocketbook: a line in Latin from the ancient Roman poet Virgil, which translates to, “Now, for its second master, it has thee.” Later that night Wolfe Tone slit his own throat in jail, hours before his execution for treason, and died a week later in Dublin. The pocketbook was presented to the National Museum of Ireland in 1936 through the efforts of Éamon de Valera, the famed Irish Revolutionary of the 1900s.

Pocketbook
1790s
Leather, Silk, Silver, Ink
© National Museum of Ireland

Theobald Wolfe Tone helped found the United Irishmen and was the driving force behind Irish independence. He pushed the United Irishmen towards fighting for equal rights for all Irishmen, even though most of the group’s leaders were Presbyterian or members of the Church of Ireland like himself. Wolfe Tone fled Ireland to escape capture for sedition in 1795 and briefly settled in Philadelphia. He then went to France to drum up military support for the United Irishmen. Wolfe Tone helped lead an unsuccessful French invasion of County Donegal, Ireland, in 1798 and the British captured him. He slit his own throat hours before his execution and died a week later.

Theobald Wolfe Tone
Painted by an unidentified artist
Late 1700s
Oil on Canvas
National Gallery of Ireland Collection. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland