An original copy of the Proclamation was presented to the National Museum yesterday by the family of a woman who got it outside the GPO on Easter Monday, 1916 - and brought it home under her hat.
Mary McCrossan was in O'Connell Street (then Sackville Street), Dublin, when the Rising started. She managed to get a copy of the Proclamation and, realising its significance, brought it home.
At a ceremony at the museum yesterday her grandson, Joseph McCrossan, described how she had folded the document neatly and put it in her hat to avoid its detection on her way home to Phibsboro.
The fold marks are still visible on the document, which will be displayed as part of the museum's exhibition to mark the 90th anniversary of the Rising.
Mr McCrossan described how the family preserved the Proclamation between two panes of glass for 80 years. They kept it secret so they would not be asked to part with a piece of family history.
The document was handed on by Mrs McCrossan to her son, Joseph, who worked at the National Library from 1922 and was the Oireachtas librarian until 1970.
His wife, Máire, also worked in the National Library. Mr McCrossan died in 1986 and his wife died in December 2004, leaving the document as part of her estate.
"We believed that it was important that the Proclamation should stay in Ireland and that it be in public ownership," Joseph McCrossan said yesterday.
"I was deeply impressed with the enthusiasm and scholarship of Michael Kenny of the museum when we first brought it to him in Collins Barracks for inspection. We are delighted at its new home."
There are believed to be about 40 copies of the Proclamation in existence. The last copy to go on sale fetched €391,000 at auction. The museum did not have to pay the McCrossans for their copy.
Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue and museum director Pat Wallace attended the handing-over ceremony. "The Proclamation is one of the most important historical documents in modern Irish history. We are very grateful to the family of Mr Joseph McCrossan," the Minister said.
