RCSI Heritage Collections

Well the Easter weekend is over and what a weekend! Numerous exhibitions, events, talks, re-enactments etc took place all over Dublin city. Below are just a few photos to show what was happening in RCSI. Detail of the full scale model of St Stephens Green and surrounding buildings in 1916 which greets visitors to the Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the Easter Rising exhibition on in the College Capt. Christopher Poole stands to attention at the bottom of the stairs in RCSI Surgeons & Insurgents exhibition in College Hall, the same room the insurgents slept in in 1916 Dublin Brigade Irish Volunteers Commemorative Organisation pay the College a visit Two visitors to the exhibition engrossed in completing their activity sheets oblivious to who is watching! The lads take up position behind the barricades in Front Hall ready for a rising! RCSI President Declan Magee addressing the relatives at the wreath laying ceremony,

 "We always talked of having a Rising, but, although we talked of it,  we never realised that it was so near...For little more than a week before the Rising there was tremendous excitement - a sort of seething undercurrent. You felt that something was going to happen. But what it was, you did not know." Mary Josephine Ryan As we prepare for the launch of Surgeons & Insurgents , the RCSI's 1916 exhibition and lecture series, we are looking at statements from contemporary witnesses on what they remembered about the lead up to the Rising.  To book your ticket for the exhibition and lecture series, see www.rcsi.ie/2016 . Free Entry, but booking required. From our school history books, we know that the Rebels took the British administration in Ireland and many Dublin citizens by surprise with their actions in Easter Week. But delving into the Bureau of Military History's online collection of witness statements about the months, weeks and days before

Today is International Women's Day so we decided to have a look at two women whose links to the College are very different but both equally significant.  The first woman we will look at is Mary Emily Dowson. Mary is very important in the break through of women into the world of education. In 1884 the College met to decide whether they would admit women students and the motion was passed nine votes to three. Mary became the first women to receive a licence from RCSI on 4th June 1886. Her signature in the College's Roll of Licentiates can be seen below.  Mary Emily Dowson's signature RCSI/LIC/02 The Medical Press of the time wrote an article entitled 'The First Lady Surgeon' which gives details about how well Mary performed during her four days of examinations.  Medical Press article about Mary Emily Dowson dated June 1886 The second woman we will look at is Moira Elizabeth Connolly, daughter of the 1916 Easter Rising signatory and socialist