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Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the Easter Rising

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.  

College Hall after the insurgents of 1916 vacated RCSI, April 1916

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.  
Sir Thomas Myles
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. 
St Ultan's Hospital c.1900
Courtesy of RCPI
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