Autograph letter signed by Irish Nationalist politician James O'Brien 1899

O'BRIEN, James Francis Xavier (1828-1905), Irish nationalist politician. Autograph letter signed, 26 September 1899.
 
Single sheet, approximately 130 x 205 mm, on headed paper of the Irish National League of Great Britain, Central Executive Offices, 2 Great College Street, Westminster, with decorative "Union is Strength" device. Written and signed in ink by O'Brien. Addressed beneath to Basil E. R. Gregg Esq., Peterborough, Torquay. Old horizontal fold, some light creasing and handling, with remnants of former mounting along the upper edge of the reverse. About Very Good.
 
O'Brien took part in the 1867 rising and was convicted of treason following the attack on Ballyknockan police barracks. His death sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, and he was imprisoned at Mountjoy, later held in solitary confinement in London, and subsequently subjected to hard labour at Portland before his release in 1869.
 
He later entered constitutional nationalist politics, serving as MP for South Mayo and then Cork City. By the date of this letter he was Secretary of the Irish National League of Great Britain, hence use of the organisation's distinctive headed stationery.