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| Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland c.1900 |
As this year draws to a close, Ireland is about to embark on a year of commemorations and celebrations in 2016 as it will be 100 years since the Easter Rising took place in Dublin and around the country.
Every day,
thousands of commuting Dubliners pass by RCSI's iconic building on the western
side of St. Stephen's Green in the heart of the city, with its impressive 19th
century stone-column façade. Even regular passers-by may not have noticed the
subtle reminders of our history which are scattered across the columns - now gently
smoothed by 100 years of weathering, are bullet holes from the 1916 Easter
Rising.
The centrepiece of RCSI's 2016
Commemorative Programme, which will coincide with the official state
commemorations, is a special exhibition Surgeons and Insurgents - RCSI and the Easter Rising and accompanying public lecture series. The exhibition will tell the
story of the events surrounding the battle in St Stephens Green and the taking of RCSI in Easter Week 1916. It will look at the lives of nine RCSI surgeons and nine insurgents that took part in the Rising, be it on the medical or combat side. The human stories of these individuals will be presented through witness accounts, recollections and images. The exhibition has been set up in some of the rooms occupied by the
insurgents; little has changed in those
rooms since that time.
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| College Hall after the insurgents of 1916 vacated RCSI, April 1916 |
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| College Hall today |
One of the surgeons featured is SirThomas Myles who was a Fellow and elected President of the College in 1900.
Myles was a believer in Home Rule but also fair play. He ran guns in for the
Irish Citizen Army on his yacht after Sir Edward Carson and the Ulster
Unionists had successfully carried out a similar gun-running expedition in
1914. Another prominent surgeon is Lieu-Col Francis Richard Tobin, a Licentiate
of the College and loyal veteran soldier for 20 years. Tobin attended the
wounded James Connolly in Dublin Castle Hospital and a strong friendship
developed between these opposites; military man and revolutionary.
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| Sir Thomas Myles |
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| Companion of the Most Honourable Order of Bath 1917. This was awarded to Myles for his distinguished medical services during the Easter Rising |
The Stephens Green Irish Citizen Army
garrison contained the largest number of women members to take part in the
Rising. These women carried out first aid and medical treatment on those who
were wounded in the fighting. Madeleine Ffrench-Mullens was the daughter of a
Royal Navy surgeon attended injured comrades in the College Hall over Easter
Week. In 1919 ffrench-Mullens and her friend, Dr. Kathleen Lynn, set up St
Ultan’s Hospital, the first hospital for infants in Ireland.
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| St Ultan's Hospital c.1900 Courtesy of RCPI |
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| Dr Kathleen Lynn (left) and Madeleine ffrench-Mullen. Courtesy of RCPI |
While researching and preparing the exhibition the College was contacted by a relative of Margaret Skinnider, now residing in Australia. They had a number of extraordinary items which had belonged to Margaret, including the reputed tricolour that flew over RCSI during the Easter Rising 1916! The tricolour plus Margaret's Cumann na mBan leather belt and brooch are just a few of a wealth of historically important items, some of which will be on public display for the first time, that will feature in RCSI's exhibition.
Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the Easter Rising will be open free of charge to the public from 24th March until 17th April 2016.
- Researched and written by Meadhbh Murphy