A surrender note written by Irish revolutionary icon Padraig Pearse fetched €700,000 almost 10 times its guide price - at auction in Dublin tonight.
The document, dated April 30th, 1916 had been estimated to sell for about €80,000 by auctioneers James Adam and Sons.
A spokesman for the firm said tonight: "There was huge interest and it exceeded its guide price incredibly. It finally went to an anonymous bidder."
Several state organisations had viewed the historic letter, which was penned by Pearse from his prison cell days before his execution by firing squad after the ill-fated Easter Rising.
The letter had been stored carefully by an anonymous family for the past 80 years since a Capuchin priest, Fr Columbus, collected the letter from Pearse's cell in Dublin's Arbour Hill Prison.
The letter attracted interest from overseas, including American collectors, when it was displayed in a Bond Street auction room in London and in Belfast over the past few weeks. An original copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic recently went for a record €390,000 at the same salesrooms in Dublin's St Stephen's Green.
Pearse wrote the note before he was executed with 14 other rebels captured in the battle to overthrow English rule. The letter reads: "In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms. P.H. Pearse. Dublin 30th April 1916."
Pearse came to the fore as a revolutionary in the early 20th century with calls for a blood sacrifice to rid Ireland of British rule. Fr Columbus brought the hand-written note to forces in the Four Courts who had refused to give up the fight a week after the Proclamation was read on the steps of the GPO.
On reading the letter Captain Gary Holohan, who was in charge of the Four Courts Command, eased hostilities and surrendered. Other surrender notes, which are now in state hands, were typed up for Pearse to sign and one other hand-written letter also exists.