The National Museum holds many of the last letters written by the men executed in Kilmainham Gaol in May 1916 for their part in the Rising. The collection includes Patrick Pearse’s letter to his mother, and letters from Con Colbert, Michael Mallin, Eamonn Ceannt and others, written to family and friends. All these letters have common themes; a final goodbye to loved ones, a sense of acceptance of their fate and a pride in having fought for their ideals and a free Ireland. They make for emotional reading, especially with the knowledge that within hours of writing their author was dead.
Among these is also a contemporary manuscript copy of a last letter written in May 1916 by Eamon de Valera, who had his death sentence commuted to penal servitude for life and was not executed along with the other leaders of the Rising. It was donated to the museum…
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AN SIONNACH FIONN 
similar handwriting to my father’s –
he was mathematically inclined too and used to enjoy maths problems until well into his 80s.
Or maybe it was just the type of calligraphy that was taught in primary school pre- WWII
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Could be. I’ve seen some old notebooks myself that had similar writing.
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PS my father would turn in his grave if he thought he shared any common ground with De Valera!!
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