Come Here To Me!

I’ve read many of the memoirs of those who took part in the 1916 rising and later went to write of their experiences, but Margaret Skinnider’s work has always eluded me. It has passed me by once or twice on eBay, and library copies have vanished before I got to them.

Skinnider was born in Coatbridge, Scotland and was a member of Cumann na mBan in Scotland. She fought with the Irish Citizen Army as a sniper during the rebellion and was wounded in the battle. Her book provides interesting personal recollections on the build up to the rising and her experiences during it, and also includes a fascinating list of songs sung by rebels during and after the rebellion. Among these is the song of the Irish Citizen Army, to be sung to the tune of ‘John Brown’s Body’.

It’s an interesting read for those studying or interested in the period. It is available over here, on the Open Library site.

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This is a great oddity, the 1924 fire insurance policy for the Masonic Hall on Molesworth Street. It’s the latest item in a long line of fascinating stuff my father has produced for Come Here To Me!

It’s interesting to note that the insurance policy was taking out with Sun. Sun had a long history in the city with regards fire prevention. They were one of the insurance companies who, before the establishment of a public fire service, offered protection to premises marked by a ‘firemark’. These were essentially emblems (usually of lead) which displayed a company logo and insurance number. Before the establishment of a public fire service, no premises was covered until a firemark was in place.

In his history of the Cork fire service, For Whom The Bells Tolled, Pat Poland noted that:

The firemark served a number of purposes: it marked the property so it was obvious to all that the building was covered by insurance, it acted as an advertisement for the insurance company, and it let firemen responding to a call in no doubt as to which particular building was insured with their office.

So while Dublin of course had a public fire service at the time this policy was taken out, the name ‘Sun’ had a long history in the fire prevention field in the capital. Notice the company logo on the right hand side of the policy, which states an establishment year of 1710.

The Masonic Hall on Molesworth Street had of course been involved in the Civil War only two years previous to this policy. The Irish Masonic Jewels website contains some information on the seizure of the building by anti-treatyite forces:

In April during the Civil war of 1922 Freemasons Hall was seized by Irregulars, along with the Kildare Street Club and held for a period of six weeks. No damage occurred at all and Colonel Claude Cane, the Deputy Grand Secretary at the time, paid tribute to the courtesy and consideration that he received from the Provisional Government during negotiations for the return of the building.

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I’m currently working on a project on Dublin in the 1930s, centered around the inner city and the emergence of a far-right and the religious crusades against all forms of ‘sin’ in the capital. I recently shared this 1934 anti-fascist leaflet distributed at a republican demonstration at College Green.

The news report below, from The Irish Press (May 09, 1933), is pretty typical for the period. The man involved was indeed at a ‘foreign dance’ event, but he only stayed an hour or so, and he wasn’t dancing, merely observing.

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