‘Such excitement! Dublin is in the hands of the Sinn Feiners’. So opens Lillian Stokes’ account of the 1916 Easter Rising, and it continues in much the same lively vein. Lillian (Lil) Stokes (1878-1955) came from a prominent Dublin family with links to the Jellett, Purser and O’Brien dynasties. She […]
Women’s accounts
A large section of the papers of the Wynne family of Avoca, Co. Wicklow, were presented to the Library in 1987. The great strength of the collection – apart from the evidence it contains of the family’s business entrepreneurship and estate responsibilities in Ireland and Germany – lies in its […]
Eva Gore-Booth (1870-1926) and her sister Constance (later Markievicz, 1868-1927) were the daughters of baronet and Arctic explorer Sir Henry Gore-Booth and his wife Georgina (née Hill). They were brought up in Lissadell, Co. Sligo; the Gore-Booths were considered good landlords and opened their house to poets and artists. The […]
There is one hint in the family background of Nancy Maude (b. 23 May 1886) that might explain her transformation from British society debutant into avid Irish nationalist. Although she was the daughter of Colonel Aubrey Maude, Cameronian Highlanders and the granddaughter of Colonel Sir George Maude (Crown Equerry to […]
The 1916 Junior Sophister term examinations were due to be held in Trinity College on Tuesday and Wednesday 25 and 26 April. Eileen Corrigan, a student from Belfast, travelled to Dublin by train on Easter Monday to attend them, and an account of her experiences appeared in the ‘Belfast Evening […]
The events of Easter 1916 appear to have had little or no immediate impact on the young composer Ina Boyle (1891-1967). Living in the secluded environment of her family home, Bushey Park in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow (where her father was Church of Ireland curate), Boyle was more closely affected by […]
The organisation of arms for the 1916 Easter Rising was a complicated affair with arrangements to obtain the necessary weapons taking place years in advance. Shortly after the formation of the Ulster Volunteers and the Irish Volunteers in 1913, the British Parliament banned the importation of weapons into Ireland. In […]