"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."
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.
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| To book your ticket for the exhibition and lecture series, see www.rcsi.ie/2016. Free Entry, but booking required. |
We have used these statements as part of our research to recreate the experience in College during that extraordinary time for our Surgeons & Insurgents exhibition. To whet your appetite we have picked out a few that show there was indeed plenty of preparations to go out!
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| Image: Rosanna "Rosie" Hackett (1892-1976) and the Proclamation. |
Rose Hackett was a member of the Women’s Section of Irish Citizen Army from 1913 and part of the battalion with Constance Markievicz and others stationed in Stephen’s Green and the College of Surgeons, Easter Week 1916. She was in her early twenties at the time, and had been fighting for the rights of workers since 1909.
As a trusted worker in the print shop of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) in Liberty Hall before the Rising, she was a regular messenger for the Irish Citizen Army. As preparations were made in the final hours before they went out, Rosie claimed to have handed James Connolly a copy of the Proclamation hot of the press, with the ink still wet.
The final words of her witness statement offer an interesting perspective on Dublin's relationship with Liberty Hall, "Historically Liberty Hall is the most important building that we have in the city. Yet, it is not thought of at all by most people. More things happened there, in connection with the Rising, than in any other place. It really started from there."
After the Rising Rosie continued to be a leader in the trade union movement for many decades and the newest bridge on the Liffey, the Rosie Hackett Bridge was named in her honour in September 2014.
Rosie Hackett's full statement is here.
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| Image: The Reading Room of the National Library of Ireland where the witness read up on street fighting tactics in Russia. |
Thomas O'Donoghue, later the Very Rev. Father and PP, was a founder member of Fianna Eireann and part of the Irish Citizen Army stationed in St Stephen's Green and the College of Surgeons garrison in 1916. The British Infantry Manual (1911) was read by many Volunteer Companies and a version was published in Dublin for the Volunteers.
On this (library) mission to unlock the secrets of Russian close-quarters combat, Thomas would have discovered the National Library was a hive of students, academics and a wide range of political, intellectual and cultural figures. The influence and impact of the Library, its environment and its highly knowledgeable, skilled and helpful staff is often referenced in writings of the period. In 1913 TCD Miscellany described the staff of the Library as "surpassing the angels for wisdom and helpfulness." The image of the National Library's Reading Room above is unchanged in appearance today, except of course for the fashions!
On a more serious note, the instincts of the Rebels to prepare for this type of urban conflict were correct. Recent research has shed light on the close-quarters fighting and violence that unfolded on the streets of Dublin, killing combatants on both sides, and a much larger number of civilians including 40 children.
Thomas O'Donoghue's full statement is here.
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| Image: Louise Gavin Duffy (1884-1969). |
A few days before the Rising, Louise was sharing digs with her friend Maggie Irvine on Haddington Road in Dublin. Maggie, she said, was "very much in love" with Volunteer Joe O'Doherty and was sure that there was going to be a Rebellion. "She told me several times that there was going to be a Rising. She only got a hint."
Of course Maggie was right to be worried but Joe survived and they married shortly after. Louise was one of the last to leave the GPO and the bearer of news of the surrender to the garrison in Jacob's Biscuit Factory and a defiant Thomas MacDonagh who did not want to give up.
Louise Gavin Duffy's full statement is here.
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| Image: The 'Live Bombs' table as it was left by the Rebels in the Royal College of Surgeons, and recreated in the Surgeons & Insurgents exhibition, 23 March - 19 April 2016. |
During the Rising Charles Saurin was stationed in the Hotel Metropole on O'Connell Street (where Penny's is nowadays), and served alongside his friend and future brother-in-law Arthur Shields, who was later a well-known Irish stage and film actor. In later life Shields appeared in many John Ford films such as Long Voyage Home (1940), She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) and The Quiet Man (1952) opposite John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and his brother Barry Fitzgerald.
Saurin's witness statement to the Bureau of Military History on his post-surrender march through the city recalled "a mass of howling, shrieking women from the back streets who called us filthy names and hurled curses at us." But less reported are his comments of others slightly further up the street, which highlights the complicated nature of the feelings of the citizens of Dublin in the direct aftermath of the Rising: "Going up Thomas Street we could see, however, sympathy on the faces of people looking out of the dwellings over the shops...Going past the offices of Messrs. Arthur Guinness & Co., shirt-sleeved officials were leaning out of the windows looking at us with superior, contemptuous smiles."
Charles Saurin's full statement is here.
We have used the evidence from statements like these, alongside RCSI's own records of what happened in the College in that fateful week, to recreate a unique exhibition 'Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the 1916 Rising'. The exhibition, and accompanying lecture series, is open to the public free of charge from March 23 - 19 April 2016. To book for the exhibition or talks see http://www.rcsi.ie/2016.