Commissioned, designed, printed, and hand-coloured by different women, the Cuala Press print, College Green, shows a lively scene in Dublin’s city centre. A traffic policeman stands in a moment of contemplation, as trams and cars trundle along the street, and people hurry on the pavements. Its distorted drone-like perspective allows the artist, Hilda Roberts, to bring together visually the familiar sculptures of Henry Grattan, created by John Henry Foley (1876), Thomas Moore by Christopher Moore (1857), and the pediment sculpture of Fidelity carved by Edward and John Smyth (1809) situated high on James Gandon’s House of Lords. Orientated as they are, the viewer can imagine they are in conversation with each other. The streetscape hasn’t changed much in the almost hundred years since this print was first produced. The public toilets beside the Moore statue are no longer extant but are immortalised by Joyce in Ulysses, ‘He crossed under Tommy Moore’s roguish finger. They did right to put him up over a urinal: meeting of the waters’. A satirical reference to Moore’s ode to the formation of Wicklow’s Avoca River, ‘The Meeting of the Waters’.
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).
TCD MS 7890/1/37v
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).
TCD MS 11399/15TCD MS 11399/17TCD MS 11399/11
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.
The Library is digitising apocalypse manuscripts like there’s no tomorrow. The Dublin Apocalypse (TCD MS 64) contains the Latin text of the Book of Revelation, heavily decorated with 73 vibrant miniatures, and you can now see the Final Judgement in gold and vivid colour on our Digital Collections.
IE TCD MS 64, folio 31r
The imaging of this volume was completed to coincide with a one-day symposium based on the Dublin Apocalypse, taking place in the Neill Lecture Theatre of the Trinity Long Room Hub on Friday, 1 February 2019 from 9.45am. The event will draw together experts in their fields to discuss multiple aspects of the Dublin Apocalypse and its broader context. Attendance at what is sure to be an fascinating event is free but registration is essential at https://dublinapocalypse.eventbrite.ie.
IE TCD MS 64, folio 6r
Nigel Morgan, Professor Emeritus of the University of Cambridge, will discuss the iconography of the manuscript through an art historical lens. Michael Michael’s and Frederica Law-Turner’s papers will cast light on the Ormesby Psalter and delve into the East Anglian school of manuscripts. James T. Palmer, of the University of St Andrews, will study the circulation, interpretation, and use of the Book of Revelation in the Middle Ages.
Bernard Meehan, former Head of Research Collections and Keeper of Manuscripts at the Library of Trinity College Dublin will recount the curious story of how the manuscript arrived at the College through an unusual deal between the Board and a former Provost. Finally, Laura Cleaver, Ussher Lecturer in Medieval Art in Trinity, will address early-twentieth century facsimiles of the text and their impact.
So, if you’re seeking a friend for the end of the world or simply interested in one of the Library’s medieval treasures, please join us for insightful discussion and some free coffee.
The role of Trinity College Dublin during the Easter Rising has been well documented, and during the course of the commemorations, numerous personal experiences of this period have been brought to public attention. An eye-witness account by alumnus James Alexander Glen was presented to the Manuscripts & Archives Research Library just over 50 years after the events of 1916, and it is a record of his involvement in the protection of the College (TCD MS 4456). We know from other manuscript sources that JA Glen, the son of a farmer, was born in Newtowncunningham, County Donegal, and entered College in October 1911, aged 17 years. He received his early education at Foyle College, Derry. In 1914 he was awarded a scholarship in classics, graduating with a BA in Winter 1915 and MA in Summer 1919. He joined the TCD Officer Training Corps (OTC) in his second year as an undergraduate. He was a recipient of a silver cup, one of a number of replicas of the two original cups that were presented to the College by local business who had benefited from OTC actions during the Rebellion.
TCD MS 4456 fol. 1
At the outbreak of trouble, a uniformed Glen and a fellow artillery officer, with whom he had enjoying an outing to the Phoenix Park, made a cautious journey to TCD after their tram was halted in O’Connell Street. They met with a group of Australian and South African soldiers en route, who subsequently volunteered to act as lookouts on a portion of the College roof. Under the direction of AA Luce and EH Alton (both OTC captains and College professors), operations began to protect the College from within the walls. The gates were closed, ammunition distributed and sentries were posted at various locations.
As events unfolded during Easter Week, Glen was ordered to follow a colonel to an attic window in one of the College buildings that overlooked Westmoreland Street and O’Connell Street. The ‘red-tabled and red-hatted senior officer’ was considering a possible plan to demolish Nelson’s Pillar, and enquired of Glen about the type of artillery that would be required for such an operation. The pillar was seen to act as a shelter for the rebels as they moved between Clery’s department store and the General Post Office. As Glen himself recognised, even with his limited knowledge of firearms, this method would not have been a success even with the most powerful of guns. While parts of central Dublin were destroyed during Easter week, the pillar remained standing until 8 March 1966 when, fifty years after the events of 1916, it was severely damaged by explosives planted by the Irish Republican Army. The remnants were later removed.
TCD MS 4456 fol. 2
The manuscript is in very good condition, consists of five sheets written in the author’s hand, and can be consulted in the Manuscripts & Archives Research Library.
TCD MS 5870 2v Henry Street from Nelson’s Pillar May 1916 by TJ Westropp
It is only three months since the Library launched its 1916 blog Changed Utterly – Ireland and the Easter Rising. In that time we have been delighted and surprised by the extent of the support for the project and the increase in the use of the Library’s 1916 collections.
In addition to the 600+ Twitter followers of @TCDLIB1916, the blog has also recently attracted the attention of the media with articles in TheJournal.ie, the Irish Independent and the Irish Post.
One of the unexpected outcomes of the project is that it has raised the profile of the Library as a repository that actively collects such archival material. This has resulted in the donation of new material to M&ARL including the original account of 1916 by Lillian Stokes, (donated by her grand-nephew); and the deposit of an autograph album from the Frongoch internment camp. Posts on these new accessions will appear on the blog shortly. Research Collections staff have also met with many different people and agencies working on their own 1916 projects, which include prospective theatre performances, visitor centres and other digital projects.
Most of our weekly posts are written by Library staff, with some contributions from Trinity academics and other experts, including a forthcoming post written by the relative of a 1916 internee.
TCD MS 5870 5r Chimneys of the Hotel Metropole May 1916 by TJ Westropp
This week’s post focusses on an album of 44 photographs of Dublin taken in the days immediately following the rising. Subscribers to the blog have already learned of the experience of Thomas Bodkin as a St John Ambulance stretcher bearer working out of Dublin Castle and the story of Eileen Corrigan, one of four female students to brave sniper bullets on her way into Trinity to sit exams.
