This startling and hitherto unreproduced image of the Dublin Four Courts ablaze was taken on the night of 1 July 1922. The fire signalled the end of the ‘battle of the Four Courts’, the first engagement of the Irish Civil War. The factions involved were those that supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 and those that opposed it. It also resulted in the devastating destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland, part of the Four Courts Complex, which housed seven centuries of Ireland’s historical record.
The photograph (TCD MS 7890/1/37) comes from the Library’s extensive Childers family archives. Little is known about this image other than the inscription on the back which reads ‘Taken, from here, the night after the surrender. I suggested the photograph. G Cleary’. This is most probably Fr Gregory Cleary, a correspondent of the Childers family and admirer of Robert Erskine Childers (former Secretary General of the Irish delegation at the treaty negotiations, who had subsequently sided with De Valera and the Anti-Treaty faction, and was executed by Pro-Treaty forces in November 1922).
Fr Cleary was resident at the Friary on Merchant’s Quay at the time of the battle – a building directly facing the Four Courts from the opposite side of the river Liffey. It was here that the image was taken and it was then sent to Molly Childers, Robert’s widow, sometime later. Other Capuchin brothers were known to have engaged with the Anti-Treaty forces occupying the Four Courts, especially those from the community based in Church Street on the north side of the Liffey.
The dramatic red colouring of the small photograph is the result of underexposure due to the low light levels at the time it was taken, necessitating the intensification of some chemicals during the developing process. This has caused a red colour-cast, or discolouration, as the photograph has aged.
The Library also hold records originating from the opposite side of the conflict during this period, most notably a file of correspondence, telegrams and records of phone messages between Michael Collins (commanding the Pro-Treaty National Army forces) and Winston Churchill (at the time a British cabinet minister and co-signatory of the treaty). The file contains copies of Collins’ telegrammed requests for ammunition. It also contains a selection of messages from Churchill to Collins written down by Alfred Cope, (Assistant Under Secretary in Dublin and intermediary between the British and Irish governments), which were recorded on scraps of now defunct ‘parliamentary questions’ paper. One such message to Collins, stamped 30 June 1922, and signed off in Churchill’s name reads ‘… the archives of the Four Courts may be scattered but the title deeds of Ireland are safe’ (TCD MS 11399/15).
The devastating legacy of the destruction of the nation’s archives has formed the basis of the work of our colleagues at Beyond2022. The Library is a core partner of the Beyond2022 project and also a participating institution, donating records to the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland. The latter is a vast compilation of items recovered or copied from documents that were once housed in the Four Courts. The project is the culmination of six years of collaboration with archives across the globe. We congratulate the team on the launch of such an ambitious and critical project for the future of Irish historical research.
Estelle Gittins
With thanks to Andrew Megaw and Caroline Harding
