Papers of Richard (Dick) Humphreys

UCDA P351/59 (1) Photograph of Dick Humphreys with Miss Pearse and other St Enda’s alumni (November 1954)

Later this year UCD Archives will be delighted to make available for research the papers of Richard (Dick) Humphreys. These papers are analogous and contemporaneous to many other collections of private papers held by UCD Archives and will complement our holdings wonderfully.

Dick Humphreys was born 23 April 1896 in Limerick city. He was the eldest child of Dr David Humphreys and his wife Mary Ellen (Nell) O’Rahilly. Nell was the sister of The O’Rahilly and Áine (Anno) O’Rahilly and the family’s republican sympathies were passed on to Dick and his siblings, Sighle and Emmet.

UCDA P351/9 Letter from Patrick Pearse to Nell Humphreys asking her to allow Dick to return to St Enda’s for the following school year (1912)

Dr Humphreys died in 1903, and Nell moved her family to Dublin. They lived at several addresses before ultimately settling at 36 Ailesbury Road, along with Nell’s sister Anno. In September 1909 Dick entered St Enda’s school, founded by Patrick Pearse and then located in Ranelagh. When the school moved to Rathfarnham the following year, he became a boarder. However, in 1912 Nell removed him from the school and sent him to Clongowes Wood College in county Kildare. Dick ran away before arriving at the school but eventually went to the College, despite wanting to return to St Enda’s.

UCDA P351/20 ‘English Atrocities in Ireland: A Compilation of Facts from Court and Press Records’, pamphlet by Katherine  Hughes ([1920])

Dick joined the Irish Volunteers while still a student, and on 26 July 1914 he assisted his uncle, The O’Rahilly, in the transport of arms from Erskine Childers’ yacht the Asgard during the Howth gunrunning. His further education was postponed due to the political unrest of the times, and he joined his former teacher Patrick Pearse in the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising. After the Rising, in which The O’Rahilly was killed, Dick was transported to England along with many other rebels and imprisoned in Wakefield, Yorkshire. He was released before the start of Michaelmas term of 1916, and he enrolled as a law student at King’s Inns. 

During the War of Independence, Dick was in B Company, 3^rd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade, IRA. The British raided the Humphreys family home at 14 Herbert Park on 3 April 1920, and Dick was arrested and imprisoned in Mountjoy jail. He took part in a hunger strike with other prisoners for ten days before being freed on 14 April 1920.

UCDA P351/57 Dick Humphreys on a motorcycle ([1930s])

Dick took little active part in the Civil War but, like his relatives, took the anti-Treaty side. He was arrested again, along with the rest of his family, when the Free State troops raided the Humphreys’ home on Ailesbury Road in November 1922. All members of the family were released by the end of 1923.

Called to the bar in November 1920, Dick never actually practiced law professionally. He was however a keen motoring and cycling enthusiast from a young age, and during the 1920s was very involved in motor sports, and writing on same for the Irish Cyclist and Motor Cyclist. He started a business importing tyres from Canada in 1922, and in 1926 became involved in the development of the Thomond motor car. He continued in the motor services field for much of his life.

UCDA P351/125 Motorcycle-related sketch by Dick Humphreys

In September 1929 he married Eithne O’Mara. They had two daughters and five sons together. They built a home in Kingswood, Clondalkin in Dublin and grew apple orchards there, which supplemented the family income. Dick died on 20 September 1968.

This collection of Dick Humphreys papers was transferred to UCD Archives in 2018 by Niall Humphreys. It includes general correspondence; five scrapbook folders, likely created by Richard and Eithne Humphreys, concerning the revolutionary period, political developments in Ireland, and general family matters and interests; printed material including republican propaganda, and motoring matters; correspondence addressed to Eithne Humphreys (née O’Mara), material relating to Humphreys’ mother, Nell Humphreys and aunt, Anno O’Rahilly; material relating to Humphreys’ siblings Sighle and Emmet Humphreys; correspondence addressed to and from the children of Richard and Eithne Humphreys (Éoige, David, Jim, Richard, Mary, Michael and Niall); correspondence and other documents relating to the death of Richard Humphreys; an extensive collection of family photographs and picture postcards; documents relating to Richard Humphreys’ father-in-law, James O’Mara (merchant, politician and Sinn Féin fundraiser); and other material, including documents relating to Humphreys’ attendance of St Enda’s school in Dublin; notebooks, sketches, and other documents created by, or in the possession of, Humphreys.

Several of Dick’s relatives’ papers are also held in UCD Archives, including Sighle Humphreys (UCDA P106), The O’Rahilly (UCDA P102) and Elgin O’Rahilly (UCDA P200).

This blog post was written by Sarah Poutch, Archivist, UCD Archives.

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Note: The website Humphrys genealogy (researched and maintained by Mark Humphrys) contains much useful information concerning the Humphreys and O’Rahilly families.