If you strike us down now we shall rise again and renew the fight. You cannot conquer Ireland; you cannot extinguish the Irish passion for freedom. If our deed has not been sufficient to win freedom then our children will win it by a better deed.
- Pádraig Pearse
This day 100 years ago men, women and children gathered at Liberty Hall to take part in the 1916 Easter Rising and the fight for Ireland to rule herself and be declared a Republic. Just after midday Pádraig Pearse stood outside the General Post Office (GPO), Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street) and read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic to a bewildered crowd.
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| Proclamation of the Irish Republic Courtesy of TCD |
Unaware of what has to take place surgical, medical and nursing staff treated those who had been brought back injured from the battlefields of World War I. Within hours soldiers, rebels and civilians wounded from the intense fighting on the streets of Dublin would begin to pass through the doors of all the city's hospitals. Operating theatres would soon be pushed to their limits with surgeons fighting tirelessly to save the lives of those wounded; soldier and rebel alike.
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| Operating theatre in Richmond Hospital, c1900 |
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| Operating theatre in Mercer's Hospital, 1908. |
The garrison that came up to St Stephens Green was lead by Commandant Michael Mallin. To read a list of all the members of this garrison and of those who joined the St Stephens Green/Royal College of Surgeons garrison during that historic week click here. This list was provided by Brendan Hyland, a relative of the garrison, who researched the members extensively.
Some of these rebels were wounded in the intense fighting in and around St Stephens Green and were brought to hospitals for treatment. In St Vincent's Hospital on the Green those wounded rebels would have found one member of the surgical staff who sympathised absolutely with their nationalist beliefs. That man was John Stephen McArdle.
McArdle was born in Dundalk in 1859 and studied medicine in the Catholic University in Dublin. He received his licence from RCSI in 1879 and became a Fellow in 1884. McArdle was an avowed nationalist and made his beliefs known in 1900. When Queen Victoria paid a visit to Dublin that year McArdle flew a black flag from his house in Upper Merrion Street! McArdle was friends with John Redmond and Charles Stewart Parnell.
McArdle moved to 72 Merrion Square after 1900 and by altering one feature of his house his fellow Dubliners affectionately gave him a nickname, as only Dubliners can. McArdle removed the steps of 72 Merrion Square replacing them with marble ones. They are still there today so next time you go for a walk around/past Merrion Square have a look. By doing so McAdle became known as Johnny McMarble!!
McArdle moved to 72 Merrion Square after 1900 and by altering one feature of his house his fellow Dubliners affectionately gave him a nickname, as only Dubliners can. McArdle removed the steps of 72 Merrion Square replacing them with marble ones. They are still there today so next time you go for a walk around/past Merrion Square have a look. By doing so McAdle became known as Johnny McMarble!!
In 1914 McArdle addressed a parade of National Volunteers in Wicklow saying that if they had to leave the path of peace to defend Ireland
He [McArdle] would not be there as their friend merely but he hoped he would be here as one of the rank and file of the army that they have started for the defence of their country.
While on duty in St Vincent’s
Hospital during that historic week, McArdle attended the wounded brought in by ambulance from all around
the city. Overflow cases were brought from Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital swelling
patient numbers leading to McArdle and other staff working continuously for the
duration of the Rising.
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| St. Vincent's on the Green hospital staff, 1916 McArdle is seated in the middle |
- Researched and written by Meadhbh Murphy