1916 Easter Rising

14 posts

‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention’: Armoured Personnel Carriers in 1916

The Easter Rising of 1916 took the British army by surprise. The troops already in Ireland consisted mostly of reserve forces, and although they were mobilised immediately, much of their military hardware was then deployed in the War in Europe. As a result, improvised armoured personnel carriers were hastily constructed […]

Excerpt from 'Sixteen dead men'

Sixteen dead men

The Irish poet and sculptor Dora Sigerson Shorter (1866-1918) was profoundly affected by the 1916 Easter Rising and mourned those who had lost their lives in the rebellion in her verse. Dora was born in Dublin in 1866, the eldest daughter of George Sigerson, a physician, Gaelic scholar and writer, […]

The Golden Jubilee in 1966

1966 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising and in this week’s post we take a look back at some of the golden jubilee commemorations. In addition to official events in the Republic sponsored by the government’s commemoration committee, local ceremonies and celebrations took place in all 32 counties […]

‘from the still-hot ruins of the G.P.O. Dublin’

John Joly (1857-1933) was one of Ireland’s most distinguished scientists of the early twentieth century. Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at Trinity College Dublin, Joly, a native of Offaly, was well-known and respected amongst the scientific elites of Ireland, Britain, and Europe, and published on disparate subjects, most notably the […]

The Diary of Winifred Frances Wynne for 1916

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 […]

Ashbourne 1916 Memorial

The Ashbourne 1916 Memorial pictured here commemorates the battle of Ashbourne, one of the most significant events to take place outside Dublin. The Memorial is a fusion of Irish nationalism and religion, resonant of the Easter Rising itself. On the Friday of Easter Week, 28 April, men from the 5th […]

Two Girls in Silk Kimonos

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 […]

The Ruins of Dublin 1916

Thomas Johnson Westropp (1860-1922) was a Limerick-born scholar and a graduate of TCD. He was an antiquarian and a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Society of Antiquaries in Ireland; he published widely and spent his life researching and recording the archaeological sites of Ireland. Westropp is especially […]

Loyal and Gallant Conduct

That Trinity College took a side in the 1916 Rising should be of surprise to no one. Her links with the British establishment began with the foundation by Royal Charter of ‘the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin’ in 1592, and continued throughout the […]

‘The wonder & the splendour’: Nancy Campbell’s record of the Easter Rising

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 […]

1916: a view from the Castle

A single sheet of notepaper in the Thomas Bodkin papers, MS 7013/7, gives a concise impression of the atmosphere in Dublin during the 1916 Rising. Thomas was a young barrister at the time, the eldest son of a prominent middle-class nationalist family living at 52 Upper Mount Street. For the […]

Examination under Fire

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 Howth Gun Running

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 […]