Eight monologues by today's leading Irish dramatists, remembering the men and women involved in the signing of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. This important document was read to kick off the Easter Rebellion of 1916, which eventually lead to an independent Ireland. This groundbreaking theatrical and literary commemoration portrays the emotional struggle of Ireland's turbulent past.

The Proclamation of the Irish Republic is the most significant document in Irish history. The credo contained therein, to cherish ‘all of the children of the nation equally’, has come to define its seven signatories, marking a common bond in their life’s work. Their memory intensely moulded by their political activities, history can forget the diverse background from which these seven men came—family histories that touched upon twenty counties and economic environments ranging from extreme poverty to privilege. The Family Histories of the Seven Signatories is an indepensible genealogical history that uncovers the disparate lives that came together through the will for Irish independence. Thomas Clarke and James Connolly were born in England and Scotland respectively, their families having emigrated in the years after the Great Famine, an experience shared by many generations of Irish people before and since. Thomas McDonagh and Patrick Pearse had immediate English forebears. The signatories’ pasts from before they were born were an essential component in determining their ideas – each firmly their own – of an Irish republic. Their extended histories, fully disclosed within the pages of this book, are a riveting realisation of the complexities that defined nineteenth century Ireland and the lives of the seven signatories whose pasts reveal the many-faceted draw towards rebellion.

Included are the Minutes (or Procès-verbal) of the Council from its first meeting, Paris, January 16, 1920, to the session, ; the budget for the 3d- financial period (1921- ) in 1920, no. 7, 1921, no. 9, 1923- no. 1 of each year; statements of the "Present situations as regards international engagements registered with the Secretariat"; Saar Basin, periodical and other reports and papers; reports on the financial reconstruction of Austria, and of Hungary; and many other reports and papers.