Michael Davitt to Thomas Power, around 1904-1906? IE TCD MS 9376/1048

IE TCD MS 9376/1048: Letter from Michael Davitt, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin, Ireland to Thomas Power [of Thomas Power & Co., makers of Blackwater Cider, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford], undated but around 1904-1906?, concerning a Labour demonstration in Dungarvan: "I don't know as yet, what particular train I will leave by on Saturday. I will try, however, to reach Dungarvan on Saturday evening. I can go with you to Ringville on Sunday morning. Please inform me how the Dungarvan Board of Guardians have acted towards the labourers - how many cottages they have erected etc. Also how the neighbouring Boards, have worked the act. Give me an estimate of the number of cottages erected, say within the county, or district from hence the meeting on Sunday will be drawn. Also about how many cottages ought to be erected, if the act was fully applied. Any other local facts which would be commented upon with advantage to the labour cause will be serviceable. I think there ought to be an Amnesty Resolution something like this: Resolved - "That this meeting of labourers, farmers and others, calls upon the Government to grant an amnesty to the political prisoners, all of whom have now undergone more than 10 years of the fearful ordeal involved in penal servitude, which is a greater punishment than that inflicted in the sentences passed upon Englishmen who were found guilty of complicity in dynamite outrage at Walsall. This fact, taken together with the circumstances, that many of the prisoners for whom we demand this clemency were the victims of spies, like Red Jim McDermott, who purchased explosives with secret service money and planted them upon their victims, ought to obtain the immediate release of all those who are now incarcerated for political offence, arising out of the passions aroused by government through coercion, injustice [?]." Let me know the trains that will reach Dungarvan on Saturday night via Mallow..." Recovered by Mrs. Mary Davitt.