Come Here To Me!

The Irish Citizen Army at Liberty Hall, 1917.

As the focus of the ‘decade of centenaries’ shifts towards the foundation of the Irish Volunteers, and next year sees the centenary of the First World War, it should be said we’re far from finished with the Lockout. While the dispute began in the summer, it dragged into 1914 and one its lasting legacies was the Irish Citizen Army, who were active in the rebellion of 1916. Tomorrow, there are two events in Dublin looking at interesting aspects of the Lockout. In Smithfield, Brian Hanley will deliver a talk on the foundation of the Irish Citizen Army, while in Temple Bar I’ll be giving a brief talk on the S.S Hare and international solidarity during the Lockout, which is the closing event of the Workers Cafe at the Temple Bar Art Gallery.

The Smithfield event takes place at 5pm in The Cobblestone, and is being hosted by the Smithfield and Stoneybatter People’s History Project:

To mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Citizen Army we will host a public talk in the Cobblestone at 5.00pm.

The Irish Citizen Army was established initially as a workers’ defence force during the 1913 Lockout to prevent police attacks on trade union marches and demonstrations. In the first week of the Lockout two workers were killed by members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police.

Our guest speaker is Dr. Brian Hanley who has lectured and written extensively on modern Irish history. We hope you can join us.

In Temple Bar I’ll be giving a brief talk at 3pm, in the nice environment of a cafe, on the Lockout. A basic introduction coupled with a brief look at international aid, the talk takes place inside the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios. Giving that the cafe is celebrating the S.S Hare foodship in 1913, I’ll be talking about it among other things.