The faded brown autograph book has seen a lot of wear in the past century. Its pages are filled with signatures, snatches of poetry and inspiring slogans all written out, in florid cursive, by Irish prison inmates.
The autograph book belonged to Sean McCarthy, a teenaged Irish revolutionary. Swept up by British arrests after the Easter Rising of 1916, young Sean found himself transported to Spike Island, a prison in Cork harbor, along with other members of the Irish Republican Army.
The book passed to McCarthy s daughter, Joan Brillaud. Her husband, Andre Brillaud, is now working to preserve his father-in-law s memory.