RCSI Heritage Collections

Accompanying the College's commemoration exhibition Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the Easter Rising was a lively, informative and free public lecture series. All nine lectures were booked out which meant that some visitors were disappointed in not being able to hear such learned speakers discuss topics such as Michael Mallin, military tactics used by the British army and the rebels and what life was like in Dublin, the second city of the British Empire, before the Rising. Never fear! These lectures are now available to view on the RCSI YouTube Channel. Click on the lecture you wish to watch below and enjoy! 'Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the Easter Rising' - Dr Mary McAuliffe 'The Easter Rising: Fighting for the Crown or Half Crown?' - Padraig Yeates 'Blood and Bandages: Medicine of the Easter Rising' - Anthony Kinsella 'Stuff Matters: The material cul;ture of 1916' - Lisa Godson and Dr Joanna Bruck 'Th...

UPDATE UPDATE READ ALL ABOUT IT! Thank the megabytes for the virtual community as they have taken the story of James Duncan, his wife Catherine Lucy and their son George to heart. Progress has been made into what happened the Duncan's after James lost his job as College Porter in 1916.  The following information has been uncovered, but with the passage of time it is hard to say with certainty that these are the Duncan's we are looking for but... James Duncan may not have lived long after submitting his request for compensation in November 1916. From the 1911 census we know James was 59 years old. The James Duncan in the following death record died aged 64, but his birth date is estimated. So is it James Duncan the College Porter? James Duncan Death Record Catherine Lucy Duncan was living with George in Pembroke Road until the 1940s and then this death record appears Catherine Duncan Death Record George was born in 1902 and his birth record with his fu...

After the success of RCSI Heritage Collections last appeal for help with an unsolved mystery , we are again asking for you, the virtual community, to help locate a relative of James Duncan, College Porter in 1916 .  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While researching for the College's 2016 exhibition Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the Easter Rising   we stumbled across the eye-witness account of how the insurgents gained entry into the College. What a discovery! But unfortunately the discovery was soon tinged with sadness. Letter accompanying James Duncan's petition The College Porter at the time, James Duncan wrote this eye-witness account, had it signed and witnessed by a solicitor then sent it to the President and Council of the College. The reason being that after the dust had settled on the 1916 Easter Rising, Duncan was fired from his job of 27 years. James Duncan, who had served...

Having entered the poignant week of the executions of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, RCSI Heritage Collections wanted to look at an item that illustrates the emotions of one rebel who had fought in the Rising. A colleague in Royal College of Physicians of Ireland contacted recently with the image below. This was found by a man in a corporation flat that was being emptied out. The author had given this, amongst other things to the owner who was now passing them on. Poem written by Little Tommy Keenan So who was Thomas P. Keenan, the 12 year old, who took part in the Rising and left such a beautiful poem encapsulating that historic week? There is reference to Tommy in Michael Foy and Brian Barton's book The Easter Rising and it is as follows Whilst 12-year-old Tommy Keenan fetched food and medicine for Mallin's garrison in the College of Surgeons, his tiny size deceiving British Soldiers who never suspected that the smiling schoolboy was wearing a green Fia...

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.  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 throu...

On Sunday 17th April the exhibition Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the Easter Rising closed after a triumphant, yet short, run of just over three weeks. But the closing of the College's front door does not mean the end of the exhibition. We are delighted to announce that it will be travelling to the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Lexicon Library situated on Haigh Terrace in Dún Laoghaire. RCSI exhibition Surgeons & Insurgents heads out to Dun Laoghaire next month The entwined lives of the nine surgeons and nine insurgents featured in the exhibition will continue to enthral and intrigue audiences from 2nd May until 3rd June 2016.   Visitors will also be able to attend two talks that relate to these surgeons and the ambulance staff that risked their lives to save soldier, rebel and civilians alike during that historic week. These talks will be delivered by Meadhbh Murphy, RCSI Archivist, and Padraig Allen, archivist in St John Ambulance. Dates and times for these talks c...

One of the many treats of RCSI's Surgeons & Insurgents exhibition is the remarkably detailed scale model of St Stephen's Green in Easter Week 1916. To add to the re-creation, Mary O'Doherty, Special Collections Librarian of the RCSI Library, has looked at Thom's Dublin City Directory 1916  to see who was living and working on the Green and surrounding streets 100 years ago. Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland building in the scale model created for ' Surgeons & Insurgents: RCSI and the Easter Rising ' exhibition, open to the public until 17th April 2016. Free entry, book place here . Image credit: Billy Cahill. St. Stephen's Green in 1916 was a fairly well-to-do part of the city having received a proper facelift in the 1870s from the gift of Sir Arthur Edward Guinness (later known as Lord Ardilaun), whose statue faces RCSI today. Sir Arthur purchased the Green, paid off its debts, returned it to the public and took an active part in the lan...