Guide to the Papers of Albert Dryer
MS 6610
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Albert Dryer
- Title
- Papers of Albert Dryer
- Date Range
- 1915-1963
- Collection Number
- MS 6610
- Extent
- 2.4 metres (12 boxes + 1 large folio box + 1 medium folio box)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Special Collections (Manuscripts)
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Papers: 1. Internment 1918-1919; 2. Petition seeking repeal of the Government of Ireland Act; 3. Irish National Association, 1916-1919, 1949-1953. 4. Australian League for Undivided Ireland, 1948-1954; 5. Correspondence 1930-1963; 6. Miscellaneous, including photographs. Added to Collection. 7. Manuscript music scores and miscellaneous papers including correspondence, clippings of articles, receipts.
Conditions Governing Access
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2184989).
Conditions Governing Use
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred Citation
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Albert Dryer, National Library of Australia, MS 6610, [series and/or file number]'.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The original collection was purchased by the Library from Albert Dryer's son, Mr A. Dryer, in 1981. Additions were received in 1986 and 1990. In 2002, an addition was transferred to the Dryer Papers from the Patrick O'Farrell Papers (MS 6265).
Related Materials
The Patrick O'Farrell Papers (MS 6265). Photographs transferred to the Pictures Collection.
Biographical / Historical
Albert Dryer founded the Irish National Association in 1915 in Sydney, with the object of propagating the principle of Irish independence. For this cause he was interned in Darlinghurst Gaol in 1918. He practised medicine from 1938, in Sydney and Singleton, N.S.W., where he died in 1963.
Item Descriptions
Class 1. Original Consignment
The collection comprises correspondence, photographs, newspaper cuttings, articles, typescripts, speeches, petitions, reports, ephemera, certificates, and manuscript music scores. It includes both original material and photocopies.
Series 1. Correspondence, 1930 - 63 - Box 1 (MS 6610)
This series consists of correspondence as listed by Patrick O'Farrell, including a folder of circulars, Irish Book Depot 1920, and Irish Prisoners' Relief Committee 1918.
Series 2. Internment, 1918 - 19 - Box 2 (MS 6610)
Correspondence and papers relating to efforts to secure the release of internees. Includes personal notes on A Dryer and biographical sketches of other prominent activists for the Irish movement.
The series also includes texts of a number of speeches prepared by Dryer for various occasions up to the 1950s and some correspondence relating to the affairs of the Irish National Association.
Series 3. Irish National Association (INA), 1916 - 53 - Box 2-3 (MS 6610)
The Irish National Association of New South Wales was formed in 1915 on the initiative of Albert Dryer (1888-1963), an Australian of Irish-German descent who had suddenly become converted to the cause of Irish nationalism. It was the only Irish organisation in Australia that supported the 1916 Easter Uprising. Membership increased from 600 in 1916 to 1500 in 1919 and small branches were set up in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. These branches died within a few years,but Dryer's dedication ensured that in Sydney the Association has survived.
The series consists of reports, 1916 - 19, 1949 - 53 and a file relating to the development of a library collection.
There are further papers pertaining to the Irish National Association throughout the remainder of the collection, particularly those relating to the internment in Series 2.
Series 4. Australian League for an Undivided Ireland, 1948 - 54 - Box 3-4 (MS 6610)
In 1948 Eamon de Valera, the leader of the Fianna Fail Party and former Taoiseach, went on an overseas tour to enlist support for his campaign against the continued partition of Ireland. In Sydney he charged Albert Dryer with the task of organising the Australian League for an Undivided Ireland. Dryer worked hard to enlist support in all States, but the League never flourished, it met with hostility from Catholic clergy, and by 1955 it was virtually defunct.
The series includes: Propaganda, newspaperse, pamphlets, 1949 - 56; Minutes, 1948; Correspondence: c. 1500 letters consisting of correspondence with the several Australian branches of the League and overseas correspondence; Petition seeking repeal of the Government of Ireland Act: petition prepared by the League to the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia seeking that the government should use its influence to endeavour to induce the Government of GreatBritain to repeal the Government of Ireland Act. Probably incomplete, includes several hundred signatures.
Series 5. Manuscript music scores - Box 5-6 (MS 6610)
This series consists of manuscript music scores. The genres represented include Irish national songs, patriotic songs, military music, folk music, and sacred music. They include vocal, piano and instrumental works. Composers include Victor Herbert, Robert O'Reilly, Jack O'Sheehan, P. W. Joyce and Chas W. MacCarthy. There are also arrangements of classical works by composers such as Schubert, Chopin, Gurlitt, Bach, Handel, Mozart and Haydn. The series alsocontains harmony excercises, theory notebooks and exam certificates belonging to Albert Dryer and Lizzie Hayes (later Elizabeth Dryer).
Class 2. Consignment received 2022, 1916 - 63
This consignment was transferred from the Patrick O'Farrell Papers (MS 6265). There are significant links and areas of overlap between the O'Farrell and Dryer collections. Following Dryer's death, his widow, Elizabeth Dryer, made her husband's vast collection of papers available to O'Farrell to photocopy and then return, a process that continued throughout the 1960s - 70s. The process of copying reflects the phases of O'Farrell's writing on subjects to which Dryer was central. This writing was motivated, in part, by O'Farrell's promise to Elizabeth Dryer that he would do historical justice to Dryer. O'Farrell continued his work on Dryer after Elizabeth Dryer's death in the late 1970s through to the 1990s, which explains his retention of some of the Dryer material. In addition, some of the material, such as Christmas cards, remained in O'Farrell's possession because it had a low photocopying priority.
This consignment includes both originals and copies.