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A follow up on Cromwell’s Quarters

Posted in Social History, tagged , , , , , on March 22, 2011| 7 Comments »

I took a swing by the aforementioned Cromwell’s Quarters earlier to get a snap of the recently replaced sign. Whether the old sign was swiped or merely kept in storage while building work was going on next to the lane, who knows, but its not there if you take a look on Google Maps…

Yup, Cromwell's Quarters!

I also came across this map from 1885, seven years before the name changed to Cromwell’s Quarters on the excellent rootschat forum which marks the steps as “Murdering Lane.” Granted, you do have to squint, but there it is between Bowe Lane and the South Dublin Union.

Just beside Bowe Bridge is... Murdering Lane! Kudos to shanew147 for the upload.

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Introducing Charles Haughey B.Comm B.L, A.C.A (Fianna Fail Election Leaflet 1954)

Posted in Dublin History, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 20, 2010| 6 Comments »

“The old guard and the new”, this is a classic Fianna Fail election leaflet encouraging the public to get behind two 1916 veterans (Oscar Traynor and Harry Colley), “stand by De Valera” and to put faith in two newer faces, Eugene Timmons and Charles Haughey. It is a most unusual piece, from the Dublin North East constituency.

Traynor is a well-known figure in Irish political history, in command at the Metropole Hotel during the 1916 Rising. Unusually, he was a soccer-man, and had toured Europe with Belfast Celtic in 1912. The image below is taken from a piece on his time at that club over on the excellent Belfast Celtic historical site.

Traynor (Goalkeeper) with the rest of the Belfast Celtic team in 1912.

Harry Colley had also taken part in the Rising, and the leaflet notes that he was “..left for dead at a Dublin street barricade” during the rebellion.

Ultimately, Charles Haughey would fail to win a seat in 1954, obtaining 1,812 votes. When Haughey did obtain a seat three years later in 1957, it was at the expense of Colley. The rest, as they say, is history.

Click to expand and read:

(more…)

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The Bridges of Dublin City

Posted in Dublin History, Miscellaneous, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 30, 2010| 8 Comments »

It’s a good question for a pub quiz- How many bridges span the Liffey from Heuston Station to where Dublin meets the sea? No doubt you’ll get a plethora of answers, but you’ll rarely get the right one. You can guarantee people will forget that two bridges traverse the water at Heuston, they’ll forget about the little Rory O’Moore Bridge that has more history than most of them, or the DART Loopline at Butt Bridge. They might even forget the ugly abomination that is the East Link, the last connection between Northside and Southside before Dublin Bay separates the two…

Perhaps Dublin's best known bridge, The Ha'Penny Bridge.

The correct answer, if you want to know, is seventeen, starting at Sean Heuston Bridge and working all the way along the river to the Eastlink Bridge at Dublin Port. I’m not going to cover them all in this piece; I won’t be covering the bridges we all know, like O’Connell Bridge or the Ha’penny Bridge for that matter. What I will do is take a look at some of the ones to the west of O’Connell Bridge; ones I find interesting mainly due to who they’re named after or because of their historical importance.

-Sean Heuston Bridge (ex-King’s Bridge, Sarsfield Bridge) 1829

The first incarnation of the bridge was built in 1828/ 9 and named Kings Bridge to commemorate a visit by George IV to Dublin in 1821.  After the declaration of the Free State  in 1922, it was renamed Sarsfield Bridge, in memory of Patrick Sarsfield, leader of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1641. (I’ll talk about the 1641 Rebellion later.) In 1941 the bridge was again re-named, this time after Sean Heuston, a member of Na Fianna h-Éireann who played a prominent role in the Easter Rising of 1916.

At 19 years of age, Seán Heuston was Captain of a twenty three strong company of men, mostly Fianna h-Éireann members around his own age, who were directed by James Connolly to take “The  Mendicity (Institute on Ushers Island) at all costs”. Their goal was to prevent British re-inforcements coming into the city from The Curragh Camp and the West. They held out until Wednesday afternoon, until they were scattered by the 10th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. One of the more striking stories of the Rebellion (or one of countless stories to tell of that week) is that of the Liutenant of the 10th Battalion, Lieutenant Gerald Aloysius Neilan who was shot and killed by a sniper from the Mendicity, while his brother Anthony Neilan took part in the Rising on the Rebel side. He was one of two Liutenants killed in Dublin that day, with another nine members of the 10th Batt. killed at the Mendicity,  as per a report to Prime Minister Asquith by General Sir John Maxwell.  Seán Houston was captured with 22 other men and executed by firing squad on May 8, 1916 in Kilmainham Jail on the charge that he “… did take part in an armed rebellion and in the waging of wars against His Majesty the king such act of being of such a nature as to be calculated to be prejudicial to the defence of the Realm and being done with the intention and for the purpose of assisting the enemy.”

 Kingsbridge Station was later renamed Heuston Station in his honour.

Nothing like this anymore of course, theres more silt than water under it, and the LUAS runs across it!

The Bridge itself was reconstructed in 2003 and now carries the LUAS from Tallaght to the Point.

– Rory O’Moore Bridge, (ex- Victoria & Albert Bridge, Queen Victoria Bridge) Watling Street to Ellis Street, 1859 (Previous structures: 1670, 1704)

“Oh lives there the traitor who’d shrink from the strife, who would add to the length of his forfeited life. And his country, his kindred, his faith would abjure; No we’ll strike for old Ireland and Rory O’Moore.” (more…)

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The grave of Vonolel, the famous and bemedalled horse.

Posted in Dublin History, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2010| 10 Comments »

Field-Marshal Earl Roberts on his Charger 'Vonolel', from the Tate Collection.

Many people walking the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham will pass a small grave without noticing, and yet this grave is perhaps the most unusual grave in Dublin itself. In the grounds of the Hospital, one finds the final resting place of ‘Vonolel’, twenty-nine years old on passing, but a veteran of conflict.

“When the Queen awarded medals to her officers and men who has taken part in the Afghan campaign and in the expedition to Kandahar, she did not forget Vonolel. Lord Roberts hung round the animals neck the Kabul medal, with four clasps, and the bronze Kandahar star. The gallant horse wore these medals on that day in June when the nation celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee”

So read The Irish Times of October 21, 1899.

Much more information on the horse can be gathered from an earlier piece however, dating from January of the same year, when Vonolel was still living. In it, it was noted that Vonolel had come to England “having been practically all over the world with his master”. He was described as “..a type of the highest class of Arab charger” and it was noted that “he traces his descent from the best blood of the desert” It was also noted that his medals were only worn on special occasions!

The grave of Vonolel, in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

It was 1877 when Vonolel was purchased from a horse dealer in Bombay, at the age of four. He was named after a great Lushai chief. He would become closely associated with Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, a man with family links to the city of Waterford. It is perhaps with the Battle of Kandahar, the last serious engagement of the Anglo-Afghan war, that Roberts (and by extension Vonolel) is most closely associated. For victory in the Battle of Kandahar, Roberts received the thanks of Parliament.

Vonolel was retired to the Curragh in Kildare, and his grave notes that he passed away while at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, in June 1899. Roberts was said to be heartbroken, and Vonolel was buried in the rose gardens of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. His military exploits are acknowledged, as is his character.

Included on the headstone are the lines:

There are men both good and wise
Who hold that in a future state
Dumb creatures we have cherished here below
Shall give us joyous greeting when
We pass the golden gate
Is it folly that I hope it may be so?

Why not stop by the grave of Vonolel the next time you find yourself in Kilmainham, and see for yourself what must surely be one of Dublin’s most unusual graves.

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The tragic death of Miss Kathleen Wright, Trinity College Dublin student.

Posted in Dublin History, Social History, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2010| 2 Comments »

Trinity College Dublin c.1900

I recently began reading a work titled The Good Old IRA, which was issued by the ‘Sinn Féin Publicity Department’ in November 1985. It lists ‘Tan War operations’ which injured or in some cases killed civilians in an attempt to highlight the hypocrisy of those who honoured the republicans of old while attacking their contemporaries.

The works introduction slates Labour Party leader and “Free State deputy-premier” Dick Spring for example, noting that he was

tongue-tied in attempting to explain the differences between the IRA gun-runner Roger Casement (in whose honour he was unveiling a statue at Ballyheigue, County Kerry) and those IRA gun-runners on the Marita Anne who had been arrested by his government’s forces off the Kerry coast 24 hours previously.

One incident detailed in particular, from 1921, stood out for me. It is listed on page 56 of the work.

Not Cricket

One woman spectator, Miss Kate Wright, a student of Trinity College, was killed and another wounded in an attack by armed civilians on military officers playing in a cricket match at Trinity College Dublin on June 3rd. A man fired shots on to the field of play from the railings at Nassau Street from which the pitch was visible.

The Irish Times reported on the day following the shooting that

The occasion was one of festivity and enjoyment in the College Park. A cricket match in connection with Warriors’ Day was in progress. The teams were the Gentlemen of Ireland versus the Military of Ireland. The general belief is that the latter were the objects of the murderous attack which resulted so tragically

From the contemporary newspaper reports, we can establish quite a lot about Miss Wright. Aged only 21 (based on an Irish Independent report of the inquiry into her death),Kathleen Alexanderson Wright was engaged to be married to a young man who was also a student at the Dublin university. His name was Mr. Geo Herbert Ardall, and he was a native of Sligo. He was studying Science at the University, and was with Kathleen enjoying the cricket match, on what was said to be a lovely summers day in Dublin.

From the following days Irish Independent.

Kathleen was the daughter of the Rev. E.A Wright of All Saints Clapham Park in London, and the Irish Independent of June 4 1921 noted that he had “before going to England filled curacies in Cahir and Seapatrick”, both in county Down. At the time of the shooting she was living on Pembroke Road in Rathmines, but before hand had lived in digs at Trinity.

The Irish Independent reported how he told the inquiry into his fiance’s death that

When the shots were fired he pulled Miss Wright down on the ground as quickly as he could. She was moaning, but he was not certain she was hit until a few moments afterwards when he saw blood on the front of her blouse. Three doctors attended her, and one told him that the case was absolutely hopeless. He did not hear her make any remark. He accompanied her to hospital, where he was told she was dead

The Irish Times report into the inquiry noted that

Another witness stated that he was in the cricket pavilion, and heard someone remark that shots were being fired outside in the park. He went out immediately, and ran to where a crowd was collecting inside the park railings opposite the Kildare Street Club. A few of his friends told him what had happened and said that the shots came through the railings (…) When witness arrived at where the girl was lying on the ground the crowd who are usually gathered in Nassau Street outside the railings to watch the game had all cleared off.

Perhaps the most surreal details about the shooting come from the statement issued by Dublin Castle in the immediate aftermath of the event. The official reported noted that another female was wounded during the shootings, and provided great insight into the initial reaction of those on the green.

As soon as the shooting began,the players, realising what was happening, threw themselves flat on the field. A regimental band, which was on the field at the time, threw down their instruments and also lay prone. The spectators were not so quick to realise what was happening until a number of shots had been fired and persons were hit.

The attackers made good their escape.

Nobody was ever tried for the shooting of Miss Kathleen Wright, and little was written about her after her body returned home. Her story is just one of many told in The Good Old IRA, with other tragic events unfolding on the streets of Dublin over the course of the War of Independence.

I’ll no doubt think of her and her story next time I wander through Trinity College.

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Urban Outfitters.

Posted in Dublin History, Social History, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 10, 2010| 1 Comment »

This plaque, marking the old home of the Medical School of ‘The Catholic University of Ireland’, illustrates perfectly to me the fact one can literally walk past history every day and not notice. The plaque is located at the side entrance to Urban Outfitters on Cecilia Street, Temple Bar.

The Irish Times of May 30 1930 noted that

The building was originally a theatre, in fact, the principal one in Dublin during the mid-eighteenth century, and, curiously enough, was once used in 1754 for an exhibition of anatomical waxworks, now preserved in Trinity College

Catholic University of Ireland

So, there you go. Always look up, and always look closely.

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And the banner read: “James Connolly, Murdered May 12th, 1916”

Posted in Dublin History, Politics, tagged , , , on May 12, 2010| 40 Comments »

The banner outside Liberty Hall, 1917

The text below is taken from the Bureau of Military History Witness Statement provided by Miss Rose Hackett, a member of the Irish Citizen Army. Rosie had been involved in the Jacob’s biscuit factory strike which took place near the end of August in 1910, ending in success for the workers. She was also involved in a later strike at Jacob’s when in September 1913 three workers were sacked for refusing to remove their trade union badges. During the Rising Rosie was positioned at Stephen’s Green under Commandant Michael Mallin.

Document No. W.S 546

“On the occasion of the first anniversary of Connolly’s death, the Transport people decided that he would be honoured. A big poster was put up on the Hall, with the words: “James Connolly Murdered, May 12th, 1916”.

It was no length of time up on the Hall, when it was taken down by the police, including Johnny Barton and Dunne. We were very vexed over it, as we thought it should have been defended. It was barely an hour or so up, and we wanted everybody to know it was Connolly’s anniversary. Miss Molony called us together- Jinny Shanahan, Brigid Davis and myself. Miss Molony printed another script. Getting up on the roof, she put it high up, across the top parapet. We were on top of the roof for the rest of the time it was there. We barricaded the windows. I remember there was a ton of coal in one place, and it was shoved against the door in cause they would get in. Nails were put in.

Police were mobilised from everywhere, and more than four hundred of them marched across from the Store Street direction and made a square outside Liberty Hall. Thousands of people were watching from the Quay on the far side of the river. It took the police a good hour or more before they got in, and the script was there until six in the evening, before they got it down.

I always felt that it was worth it, to see all the trouble the police had in getting it down. No one was arrested.

Of course, if it took four hundred policemen to take four women, what would the newspapers say? We enjoyed it at the time- all the trouble they were put to. They just took the script away and we never heard any more. It was Miss Molony’s doings.

Historically, Liberty Hall is the most important building that we have in the city. Yet, it is not thought of at all by most people. More things happened there, in connection with the Rising, than in any other place. It really started from there.

Signed: Rose Hackett,
26/5/51.

Irish Citizen Army outside Liberty Hall, 1917.

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Blogging the Humanities

Posted in Dublin History, Events, tagged , , , , , on May 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Our friends at Pue’s Occurences are organising a one day symposium under the title ‘Blogging the Humanities’. I’ll be there to do what I do best, talk about myself. Or the blog, I’ve yet to decide. In all seriousness, it looks like a great day with a fine variety of blogs taking part.It’s a worthwhile discussion no doubt, and one we look forward to partaking in.

It’s nice for Come Here To Me to be asked to partake in these things, still being a somewhat new blog, and I hold the other blogs participating in very high regard so we’re in good company.

Pue’s have set up a page specifically for the symposium (where you can register to attend) here.

“We welcome the input of all voices – from history, arts, culture, heritage and beyond, sceptics and otherwise”

Pue’s is almost a year old and, we thought, what better way to celebrate than to organise a symposium on the arts, culture, heritage and humanities blogging community in Ireland – where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going in future. Hosted in the TCD Irish Art Research Centre, the day is intended to provide an informal format that will stimulate lots of debate and discussion, led by a group of speakers from Ireland After Nama, The Irish Left Archive, Come Here to Me!, History Compass, Some Blind Alleys, UCD Academic Blogging, Sligo Model Gallery Blog, and, of course, your very own Pue’s. We welcome the input of all voices – from history, arts, culture, heritage and beyond, sceptics and otherwise – so if you’re interested, have a look at our dedicated conference page and keep an eye out on Pue’s for more details closer to the event. Registration is via our online form only and numbers are limited, so we would encourage you to do so early. We look forward to seeing you there!

Pue’s Occurences is a group history blog, mainly Irish in scope, with a wide variety of contributers. It’s the kind of blog you’ll lose an hour on, and I have on many occasions. Everything from the diaries of Phd students (Terrifying reading for an Undergraduate) to a ‘soap box’ for opinion pieces, it’s worth a click.

I look forward to the conference, and congratulate Pue’s on taking the initiative.

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“Dublin ‘Red’ Headquarters Set On Fire, Twenty Injured In Riots”

Posted in Dublin History, Politics, Social History, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 27, 2010| 4 Comments »

I’ve had the image below for quite a well now, a fantastic old press snap of two Gardaí inside Connolly House (located on Great Strand Street) after the attack on the premises in March 1933 by an anti-communist mob. Accounts of the night are always chaotic, for example in Pat Feeley’s wonderful article “The Siege of 64 Great Strand Street” (Old Limerick Journal,Vol. 9, Winter 1981) it is noted that:

“As the house filled with smoke and the mob began to occupy it, the defenders were making their escape across the rooftops. The fire brigade tried to rescue two women who were in difficulties on the slates but they were prevented by the crowd who slashed their water hose”

The fact a Webley and Colt. 45 Revolver were found by the Gardai behind the shop counter perhaps best indicates the political tension and state of fear at the time.

Feeley’s article also mentions a meeting held a number of days later where Maud Gonne McBride condemned those behind the scenes at Connolly House, to which a voice in the crowd responded that those involved were Catholics. When she continued to speak, and condemned the broader attacks of the street mobs:

Again the voice repeated, “It was Catholics”. To which this time she replied, “They were hooligans”

Bob Doyle, one of the men who was in the mob that attacked Connolly House, would go on to join the International Brigade forces opposing fascism in Spain. In his memoirs Brigadista, he wrote that:

“I had attended the evening mission on Monday 27 March 1933 at the Pro-Cathedral, during the period of Lent where the preacher was a Jesuit. The cathedral was full. He was standing in the pulpit talking about the state of the country, I remember him saying – which scared me – “Here in this holy Catholic city of Dublin, these voile creatures of Communism are within our midst.” Immediately after the sermon everybody then began leaving singing and gathered in a crowd outside, we must have been a thousand singing “To Jesus Heart All Burning” and “Faith of our Fathers, Holy Faith”. We marched down towards Great Strand Street, to the headquarters of the socialist and anti-Fascist groups in Connolly House. I was inspired, of you could use that expression, by the message of the Jesuit. There was no attempt by the police to stop us”

This, and other insightful accounts, can be read on the fantastic ‘Ireland and the Spanish Civil War’ website located here.

Connolly House, the headquarters in Dublin of the Irish Revolutionary Workers Group was set on fire after an attack made on the building by several hundred young men. Twenty were injured in the disturbances.

Photo shows:- Police officers on guard in one of the rooms after the attacks. Note the tin of petrol left by the raisers.

Grif March 31st 1933 PN.

Two stamps on the back of the photograph point to News Media companies in both London and New York.

ACME, Newspictures, Inc.
220 East 42nd St. New York City
‘THIS PICTURE IS SOLD TO YOU FOR YOUR PUBLICATION ONLY AND MUST
NOT BE LOANED OR, SYNDICATED OR USED FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSES
WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM US.

COPYRIGHT
PLANET NEWS LTD.
3, JOHNSON’S COURT
LONDON, E.C 4

The Communist Party of Ireland site notes, in its biography to Charlotte Despard (an unlikely rebel, owing to her brother being none other than Lord Lieutenant of Ireland John French) that:

“On the 29th the mob attacked Charlotte Despard’s house at 63 Eccles Street, also home to the Irish Workers’ College and Friends of Soviet Russia, but a defence had been prepared in the form of a large crowd of workers, and it escaped with broken windows. Also attacked were the offices of the Workers’ Union of Ireland in Marlborough Street and the Irish Unemployed Workers’ Movement in North Great George’s Street.”

On a lighter note, notice the can of petrol left behind by the mob is ‘BP’, or British Petroleum. You couldn’t make it up.

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Glasnevin Cemetery; Who isn’t buried there?

Posted in Dublin History, Miscellaneous, Reviews, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 7, 2010| 14 Comments »

Memorial to Irish Hunger Strikers

I’ve been up around Glasnevin before in a vain attempt to find Brendan Behan’s grave; I don’t know what possessed me, it was a beautiful day, I’d just finished reading The Hostage and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course, I failed in the attempt, but promised myself I’d come back some day and have another look. So, given the oppurtunity this weekend, the three CHTM heads, accompanied by LukeF (of LukeF Comics,) took a walk to Irelands largest necropolis where we hooked up with the official tour- led by Shane MacThomáis, son of  the great Dublin historian Eamonn MacThomáis, a man who I personally have a lot of time for, and I’m sure the other two lads here are the same. Some of his documentaries can be found here.

A modest grave for a big character; Jim Larkin

The cemetary is home to the graves of approximately 1.2 million people; A far cry from the nine acres it started out with in 1832,the area now stands at over 120 acres on one side of the road and a further 40 acres on the other, where the body of Luke Kelly now rests. It came into being initially due to reforms pushed through by Daniel O’Connell, whose tomb sits at the entrance to the cemetary. Prior to it’s existence, death was an expensive thing to endure, there being no Catholic burial grounds in Dublin and it costing a small fortune to bury a Catholic in a Protestant one. O’Connells tomb is of course marked by a 170ft tall round tower, which tends to stand out a wee bit! The tomb was the target of a loyalist bomb attack in the seventies, which shook the tomb itself, and blew up the stairs encircling the inside of the tower, closing it to the public. The Cemetary is surrounded on all sides by high stone walls, with towers on each corner. Not there to keep the dead in, they were built to keep grave robbers out. Grave robbing was a lucrative business in the 19th Century, corpses fetching £2, quite a sum in those days. Guards manned the towers from dusk to dawn, armed with muskets and pistols.

Plaque Commemorating the Cemetary Watchmen

JayCarax said it on the way up here and he was right: It isn’t a case of who is buried here, it’s easier to say who isn’t. For within a stones throw of the gate, you have Daniel O’Connell, as mentioned above, Eamonn DeValera, Michael Collins, Michael Malone, Maud Gonne, Jim Larkin, Roger Casement, Cathal Brugha, The O’Raghallaigh and Frank Ryan, amongst any number of important historical figures. The virtual map on the Glasnevin Trust site gives you a better of who is buried, and where, and is definitely worth having a look at.

One of the more interesting gravestones; The Indian Mutineers

Whilst amongst the masses of graves friends and comrades lay side by side, mortal enemies are often not within spitting distance of each other either. For while Big Jim Larkin turns to dust beneath the Glasnevin soil, likewise does William Martin Murphy whose palatial tomb is within sight of the modest grave Jim and his family are buried in. While Frank Ryan is buried within sight of the gate, Eoin O’Duffy is also. Glasnevin is, and has always been, a multi-denominational cemetary. Buried and cremated here are Catholic and Protestant, Sikhs and Jews. Rich and poor also, the cemetary is home to the Millenium Plot (what would have formerly been known as a “paupers plot.”) This is looked after by the charity “Alone” who maintain the plot and make sure people buried there are buried with dignity, giving them a full funeral, headstone and flowers. Fair play due there. In one of the older paupers plots, up to 25,000 bodies are buried in a relatively tiny area, not far from Parnell’s grave. Many of the dead were victims of a cholera outbreak in the late 19th century. A couple of years after their burial, fresh outbreaks of Cholera were reported in the Drumcondra / Ballybough area. For not far beneath the soil where their bodies lay is a maze of underground streams, all emtying into the Tolka River- the disease had assimilated into the soil and on into the water, making its way back into circulation. Nasty times.

Above is a stone that caught my attention the first time I visited, and again on our visit on Monday, a memorial to the Indian Mutineers of 1920. Theres is an interesting story. Upon hearing of the uprising in their homeland, hundreds of Irish Soldiers fighting in the British army in India turned their guns on their generals. Though close to 400 men took part, the mutiny was quickly  suppressed and eighty-eight of those men were court martialled. Fourteen were sentenced to death and the rest given up to 15 years in jails in Dagshai and Solan. Two died in the mutiny, Pte Sears and Pte Smyth. Thirteen of the men sentenced to die had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, though one man, James Daly was shot dead by firing squad. He was considered the leader of the mutiny at just 21 years old.

Frank Ryan & next to him, the great Eamonn Mac Thomais

The tour eventually took us to the grave of Brendan Behan in the end, and my search was over. Not far from him lies the burial place of Francis Sheehy- Skeffington, brutally murdered by an Anglo-Irish officer of the 3rd battalion Royal Irish Rifles, Captain J.C. Bowen-Colthurst. Another sad story, one of 1.2 million sad stories you might say. You get the sense when walking around here that each grave has a history attached, each person buried here has had trials and tribulations of their own. And while visitors come here to see the burial sites of the famous and influential, there are others here whose personal struggles surely matched the struggles of those marked on their maps.

The new Glasnevin Visitors Centre opens this Friday. There are daily tours of the cemetary, led by Shane MacThomáis, costing €5. A bargain, tours last approx. 2 hours. Without donations and support, Glasnevin would be forced to close its gates as a national monument. Be sure to visit and support it however you can. Check out http://www.glasnevintrust.ie for more details.

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Audio and photos from the launch of the Connolly siblings/Molly O’ Reilly plaque, Easter Monday.

Posted in Dublin History, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2010| 13 Comments »

Dublin Fire Brigade Piper Bernard Mulhall at Liberty Hall

“O branch that withered without age!
Would we could see you where you’re missed
Step airy on the Abbey stage
Play there ‘The Revolutionist’
Or fill with laughter pit and stalls
With Bartley Fallon’s croak and cry
What led you to those castle walls?
We mourn you Sean Connolly”
Lady Gregory.

Another plaque in place, another important part of working class Dublin history marked.

The home of the Connolly siblings, at 58/59 Sean McDermott Street Lower, now boasts a new plaque from the North Inner City Folklore Project. Captain Sean Connolly and his siblings Katie, Joseph, George, Eddie and Mattie all fought with the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter rebellion. The plaque also pays tribute to young Molly O’ Reilly, who raised the green flag over Liberty Hall in 1916.

Among the crowd were historians, trade unionists, activists,relatives of members of the City Hall Garrison and members of the local community. The Dublin Fire Brigade were represented too, due to Joseph and George Connolly serving within its ranks. Joseph was a firefighter at the time of the insurrection. The Fire Brigade can therefore boast something very few others in the city can, in the form of a real connection to the Easter Rising.

Conor McCabe at Dublin Opinion has some more images worth a look over at their blog.

Speeches and audio

James Connolly Heron speaks at the site of the plaque. His speech covers not alone Sean Connolly and his siblings, but the campaign to save 16 Moore Street.

Las Fallon, of the Dublin Fire Brigade Museum, speaks of Joseph and George Connolly.

Dublin Fire Brigade piper plays outside 58/59 Sean McDermott Street Lower.

Wind, coughing, and all the other things nature/people can whip up when you’re trying to record something, but still….

Images

Dublin Fire Brigade members at Liberty Hall

Fittingly, a relative of James Connolly presents a relative of Molly O' Reilly with the green flag to raise.

The raising of the flag

The flag is raised.

Dublin Fire Brigade colour party

Citizen Army uniforms today, spot on right down to the red hand!

Dublin Brigade- Irish Republican Army

Las Fallon, Dublin Fire Brigade, speaks of George and Joseph Connolly.

Banner marking the role of women in the revolutionary years

A poem is read prior to the unveiling

A small selection of the fantastic collection of images from the period on display afterwards

The Starry Plough blows in the wind with the new plaque behind it.

Dublin Fire Brigade trade unionists pay respect. Firefighter Russ McCobb laid this on behalf of Impact workers.

Another snap of the brief talk on the Connolly connection to the Dublin Fire Brigade

The plaque itself

After the ceremony, we decided to visit Glasnevin Cemetery. There, we thought it only fitting to undertake a search for a particular grave with the day that was in it.

The grave was that of Captain Sean Connolly, Irish Citizen Army.

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Plaque To Sean Connolly, his siblings and Molly O’ Reilly (all Irish Citizen Army) this Easter Monday.

Posted in Dublin History, Social History, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 30, 2010| 6 Comments »

Who was the first man shot that day?
The player Connolly,
Close to the City Hall he died;
Carriage and voice had he;
He lacked those years that go with skill,
But later might have been
A famous, a brilliant figure
Before the painted scene.
From mountain to mountain ride the fierce horsemen.

W.B Yeats.

This Easter Monday sees a new plaque unveiled in Dublin, a plaque to the memory of Sean Connolly and his siblings ( Joe, Mattie, George, Eddie and Katie, who all served with the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising) and young Molly O’ Reilly who raised the green flag over Liberty Hall in April, 1916.

In The History of the Irish Citizen Army, by R.M Fox, he wrote that:

In front of the hall itself the Citizen Army cleared a space and formed up on three sides of the square. Inside this square was the women’s section, the boys scouts’ corps under Captain W. Carpenter, and the Fintan Lalor Pipe Band. Captain C. Poole and a Colour Guard of sixteen men escorted the colour bearer, Miss Molly O’ Reilly of the Women Workers’ Union who was also a member of the Citizen Army.

….. “I noticed” said a member of the Colour Guard, “That some men, old and middle aged,and a great number of women were crying. and I knew then that this was not in vain and that they all realised what was meant by the hoisting of the flag

Sean Connolly famously starred in a play by James Connolly entitled ‘Under Which Flag?’ a week before the insurrection, which went hand in hand with the symbolic raising of the green flag over the hall. He was shot on the roof of City Hall on Easter Monday by a British Sniper who had taken up position in Dublin Castle. His brother, Mattie, was with him as he died. Sean is remembered not only as a captain within the Citizen Army but also as an actor at the Abbey, with Lady Gregory writing a poem in his memory after 1916.

James Connolly himself wrote in an article titled The Irish Flag published on the 8th April 1916 in the Workers Republc newspaper, that

For centuries the green flag of Ireland was a thing accurst and hated by the English garrison in Ireland, as it is still in their inmost hearts. But in India, in Egypt, in Flanders, in Gallipoli, the green flag is used by our rulers to encourage Irish soldiers of England to give up their lives for the power that denies their country the right of nationhood. Green flags wave over recruiting offices in Ireland and England as a bait to lure on poor fools to dishonourable deaths in England’s uniform.

On Easter Monday, April 5th the flag will be raised at Liberty Hall by a relative of Molly O’ Reilly. This flag will be presented by the great grandson of James Connolly. This ceremony will begin at 12 noon. After this, the crowd will move on to Sean McDermott Street where the plaque will be unveiled on 58/59 Sean McDermott Lower, where the home of Sean Connolly once stood.

There will be a photographic exhibition of images from the revolutionary years in the nearby Community Hall at Killarney Court.

This is all being carried out by the North Inner City Folk Project, the people behind fantastic events like the commemoration of the forgotten women of 1916, and promises to be a good one. I look forward to it!

Update: Images and audio from the launch can be found here

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