Weekly Posts

52 posts

An Piarsach, a Phaimfléid agus Aithreacha an Náisiúin

Ar lá Nollaig 1915 i Scoil Éanna, Rath Fearnáin, chuir Pádraig Mac Piarais críoch lena chéad phaimfléad– Ghosts. Ar lá breithe Íosa féin, leag sé amach stair thuiscint na saoirse mar a tháinig sé ó na glúine a d’imigh roimhe- aithreacha an náisiúin- Tone, Emmet, Davis, Lalor, Mitchel agus Parnell […]

Relics of the Rising

The centenary commemorations have fuelled a deeper scholarly interest in the material culture, objects and ephemera associated with the 1916 Rising, and the role of the public in collecting such items. In fact, much of the 1916-related objects in public collections, and which make up the exhibits in most of […]

Ruthless Duplicity

The historian Fearghal McGarry has described the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s way of doing things as ‘ruthless duplicity’. Joseph Plunkett, who was responsible for the so-called ‘Castle Document’, was inducted into the IRB by late summer 1914 after the Kilcoole gun-running. Already a leading member of the Irish Volunteers, he followed […]

Micheál Ó hAnnrachain/Michael O’Hanrahan and the Carlow Workman’s Club

The minute book of the Carlow Workman’s Club 1889-1925 (TCD MS 11523) has recently been donated to the Library of Trinity College Dublin. The minute book has a significant connection with Micheál Ó hAnnrachain /Michael O’Hanrahan, who was executed following his part in the 1916 Easter Rising. His brother Henry, […]

Inner Conflict

In August 1916 two large silver cups were presented to the College in recognition of the services rendered by the Officers’ Training Corps (OTC) during the Easter Rebellion. Speaking at the ceremony Provost Mahaffy expressed his regret that the College had to be defended from ‘the dangers of home rebellion’. […]

Frank Browning – a casualty of the 1916 Easter Rising

Francis Henry Browning was from Glenageary, Co. Dublin, and was educated at Marlborough College. He studied at Trinity from 1886 to 1890, and went on to become a barrister. He subsequently joined the Land Registry, where he was Examiner of Titles. As an undergraduate, he excelled in sport, playing on […]

Dublin Zoo and the 1916 Rising

On Easter Monday 24 April, as news of trouble in the city filtered through to Dublin Zoo, the visitors left quickly, as did most of the staff. The zoo remained closed until 13 May but the animals still had to be fed, the houses heated and the waste removed. The […]

Among the Nations: Poblacht na hÉireann

Probably the most iconic example of Irish printing, ‘The provisional government of the Irish Republic to the people of Ireland’ was read aloud by Patrick Pearse outside Dublin’s General Post Office (GPO) at the beginning of the 1916 Easter Rising. The history of the Proclamation is well documented. Drafted by […]

Can you be loyal to China?

Stationed in France in 1916, Patrick Hone maintained a witty correspondence with his wife Mary, which began the new year with a signed card from him and his comrades. He drew a sketch on its front of him sitting on a motorbike and smoking a pipe, ‘Mudguard Hone out for […]

The Capuchin Annual and 1916

The twentieth, twenty-fifth and fiftieth anniversaries of the Easter Rising, 1916 were commemorated by The Capuchin Annual in volumes 1936, 1942 and 1966. The Capuchin Annual espoused a very strong Irish nationalist and Catholic identity and its interpretation of the Rising was framed within this context. It also served to […]

The making of ‘Insurrection’

Many of us are currently enjoying RTÉ’s Rebellion, the flagship drama from the national broadcaster to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising. In 1966 the 50th anniversary commemorative offering was very different. When planning for the golden jubilee schedules started in the summer of 1965, the view of the […]

In Memoriam

Poet Dora Sigerson Shorter (1866-1918) was recently the subject of a post based on the Library’s holdings in the Department of Early Printed Books & Special Collections. She is also well represented among the collections in the Manuscripts & Archives Research Library. Shorter’s nationalism, expressed in the poetry she wrote, […]

At The Sign Of The Three Candles

Canon Charles O’Neill’s ballad The foggy dew is synonymous with the events of Easter 1916. Shortly after printing this copy in 1919 the firm O’Loughlin, Murphy & Boland experienced financial trouble and insolvency. Proprietor John O’Loughlin soon found employment with his son, Colm Ó Lochlainn (1892-1972), who had earlier established […]

‘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 […]

Richard J. Hoskin’s diary account of the Easter Rising

Richard J. Hoskin’s account of the Rising opens with the words: ‘Monday 24th April. At Ballycorus – Insurrection begun’. It continues until 1 May 1916. The total length is 8 folios. Hoskin uses plain language. His sentences are generally short and filled with abbreviations. He probably wrote in haste. There […]

‘The Rabble’

TCD MS 3560/1 is the personal narrative of Peadar Ó Cearnaigh (1883-1942), detailing his experiences as a Volunteer in the 1916 Rising. During Easter week Ó Cearnaigh fought at Jacob’s biscuit factory, but escaped arrest when British troops took over the building. The account held in M&ARL is an eloquent […]

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, […]

Elsie Mahaffy’s Record of the Rising

Elsie Mahaffy’s handwritten book The Irish Rebellion of 1916 is one of the longest, most detailed and most valuable accounts of the Easter Rising. It is valuable because much of it was written in real time, day by day between 24 April and 30 May 1916; because it was written […]

‘it might interest you – when this miserable business is all over’: John Dillon’s Easter Rising narrative

On 11 May 1916, John Dillon MP declared in an impassioned speech to the British House of Commons that by the execution of the leaders of the recently suppressed rebellion, the government were ‘washing out our whole life-work in a sea of blood’. When the Easter Rising broke out on […]

‘Another damned play about 1916’

Despite his derogatory epithet Denis Johnston’s play The Scythe and the Sunset is an interesting adjunct to the canon of literary works relating to the Easter Rising, informed by personal experience of the Insurrection: Denis and his family (and a parrot), were held hostage in their home at 61 Lansdowne […]

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 […]

Defending the College

          In the aftermath of the Rising Major G A Harris, Adjutant of the Dublin University Officers’ Training Corps (OTC), was tasked with writing a report for the military authorities on the defence of Trinity College during the period 24 April to 6 May 1916. As […]

Coming into his force

The impact of conflict on families features as a theme regularly on Changed Utterly. We have learned of the occupation of Denis Johnston’s house in Ballsbridge and the tragic accounts of the Boyle and Kidd families. This week, the trend continues as we look at the Gifford family and in […]

Frongoch Camp Autograph Book

James Hanratty was 32 years of age when he was arrested by British Forces and lodged in Richmond Barracks in Dublin, prior to being shipped (literally) to England. His young wife had died at the beginning of 1915, and their little daughter was being raised by her grandmother, with the […]

‘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 […]

Caught in a bind

Until now our weekly blog posts have concentrated on a specific collection or a particular item among the holdings of our Library. This week’s theme, however, is about items no longer available to consult as a direct consequence of events during Easter week 1916. Before our in-house bindery was established, […]

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 […]

The Soldier’s Song

‘The Soldier’s Song’ is known to have been sung by the rebels in the GPO during the Easter Rising, and later in the internment camps. This gave it a particular status amongst nationalists, leading eventually to its adoption as the national anthem of the Irish Free State in 1926. The […]

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 Catholic Bulletin’s ‘Events of Easter Week’

The Catholic Bulletin was first published in 1911 as The Catholic Book Bulletin, a monthly review of Catholic literature and soon established itself as a family magazine with popular appeal and an estimated circulation of 10,00-15,000. While not overtly political in the beginning, the Bulletin was opposed to the English […]

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 […]

Exit Stage Left

The majority of our weekly posts relate directly to events surrounding the 1916 Rising. However, we also have the opportunity to delve deeper into the collections and realign the focus to include topics such as 20th century social and living conditions, fallout from the conflict, and significant commemorations etc. This […]

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 […]

History of a Conflagration – A Record of the Rebellion

One of the earliest published accounts of the 1916 Rising written “while the ruins [were] still smouldering” is A record of the Irish rebellion of 1916 published by the magazine ‘Irish Life’. Received by Trinity College Library on the 29th of June 1916, this issue contains a history of events […]

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 […]

Kidd Family Letters

Dr Frederick William Kidd (1857-1917), a professor of midwifery and gynaecology at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, spent Easter 1916 attending Rugby fixtures at Lansdowne Road and entertaining visitors at home at 17 Lower Fitzwilliam Street. Three of his four sons were then serving in the Great War, and […]

‘A Citizen’s Diary’, by Henry Hanna, 1916

Henry Hanna (1871-1946), barrister and later High Court judge, was an engaged observer of events in Ballsbridge over the course of the Easter Rising. His diary (TCD MS 10066/192), a photocopied typescript, is now part of the papers of playwright Denis Johnston (1901-1984). The Hanna and Johnston families lived within […]

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 […]

Revolution in Redbrick Suburbia

In the early hours of Easter Tuesday 1916, 61 Lansdowne Road, the Ballsbridge home of Judge William Johnston, his wife Kathleen, and their only son, the future playwright Denis, was occupied, under ‘amiable circumstances’, by four armed and apologetic Irish republicans. Denis, then a 14-year-old schoolboy home for the holidays […]

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 […]