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A native of the Clogher Valley in Co. Tyrone, Róisín Walsh was born into a staunchly nationalist, Catholic family on 24th March 1889. Walsh was a brilliant linguist and gifted scholar and received the best education then available to females.

A native of Dublin’s inner city, 'Tommy' Gay was educated at Synge Street CBS. His early life coincided with the political and cultural revival of the late nineteenth century and he became very active in a range of sporting and cultural organisations, including the GAA and the Gaelic League.  A keen sportsman, he was a member of the Croke Gaelic Club where he became an accomplished hurler and was also a founder member of the Dublin Camogie Club.Right: Thomas E. Gay (1884-1953)As Gay himself later explained it, these organisations ‘gave impetus and new life to the revolutionary movement’.  He started in the Corporation libraries as a library assistant at the then newly-opened Charleville Mall Library in line with the practice of recruiting 16 year old boys.  By April 1916 he was already a mature 32-year-old man, established in his career as Capel Street Head Librarian and engaged to be married.In September 1914, he enlisted at ‘A’ Company of the 1st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade at the Columcille Hall in Blackhall Street, Stoneybatter. From that time he drilled regularly with his company and attended field manoeuvres near Swords under commanders such as Thomas MacDonagh and Piaras Béaslaí. By early 1916 Gay had learned from his company First Lieutenant, Denis O’Callaghan that ‘a Rising was to take place early in the year.’ Under orders to parade in full kit on Easter Sunday, Gay, by his own account, turned out as instructed, but on learning of MacNeill’s countermanding order he then returned home. Gay spent Easter bank holiday Monday 24 April at the Fairyhouse races (where rumours of the fighting in Dublin reached him).  Returning late on Monday night he had no way of knowing where his company was garrisoned.A pragmatic man, by Tuesday morning he decided to report to the post nearest to his home. This was at Jameson's Distillery in Marrowbone Lane under Captain Con Colbert, who, because he had enough men inside the Garrison, decided that Gay, because of his keen knowledge of the area, should be deployed instead in an intelligence and communications role between the Jameson's Distillery Garrison and Jacob’s Biscuit Factory.To all appearances Gay was ‘a mild mannered and innocuous bookworm’, and had a particular ability to make himself unobtrusive and so avoid suspicion. This was therefore a role to which he was well suited and, as he later recalled, ‘to which he was to become more and more attached’ (his subsequent service up to 1924 was almost exclusively in an intelligence capacity).He went on to provide vital assistance from the Tuesday right up until the surrender on the following Sunday. Reporting in daily, he brought in crucial supplies of arms, ammunition, medical and other supplies, updating Colbert regularly on enemy movements. By the Thursday he observed the advance of a troop of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire regiment (the Sherwood Foresters) coming along the South Circular Road from the Harcourt Street direction, heading towards Rialto. This was most likely the advance of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Regiment of the 2/8th Sherwood Foresters who were ‘detailed to escort a consignment of ammunition to the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham’. Gay immediately forewarned Colbert who was able to alert neighbouring garrisons and frustrate the British offensive.Colbert had instructed him to organise the urgent movement of food supplies from Jacob's factory; Gay went there on the morning of Sunday 30 April, when Thomas MacDonagh was already discussing terms of surrender. Major John MacBride, who was second in command to MacDonagh, instructed him to communicate the verbal surrender  back to the Distillery where Captain Séamus Murphy was standing in for Colbert.  Murphy ordered Gay back to Jacob’s to request the order in writing. MacBride refused vehemently, stating that he had never and would never put in writing an order for an Irishman to surrender and that they would know when they saw the flag coming down from their building that the surrender had taken place.Gay avoided capture in the aftermath of the surrender.  He subsequently became an Intelligence Officer on the General Headquarters staff of the Irish Volunteers, reporting directly to Michael Collins. Interrupting his library career for a time, in 1922 Gay joined the National Army, rising by 1923 to the rank of Colonel, again in an intelligence role. His place of work, Capel Street library became a centre for IRA intelligence, and his home at Haddon Road, Clontarf was frequently used by Collins for meetings.About our Guest BloggerEvelyn Conway is Librarian at Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive.The above is based on an essay in the book 'Dublin City Council and the 1916 Rising', published by Dublin City Council, March 2016. Evelyn is one of a number of contributors of essays exploring events of the Rising and biographies of persons involved and either employed by the Council at the time, or subsequently. Read this recent blog post for more.Part of a series looking at Dublin City Public Libraries staff and the 1916 Rising. See also:Róisin Walsh: Dublin City’s first Chief Librarian and the RisingPaddy Stephenson: Dublin City Council's second Chief Librarian and the RisingJames Thomas Dowling – Dublin’s County Librarian and the RisingMichael McGinn: The Clontarf Town Hall Caretaker and the RisingJames O'Byrne: The Kevin Street Librarian and the Rising 

Dublin City Council holds an original 1916 Proclamation which belonged to Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell and was kindly donated by her family.  This Proclamation has been conserved and is now on display in The Story of the Capital exhibition at City Hall. To commemorate the family’s generosity, Dublin City Council held a seminar in the Council Chamber at City Hall on Monday 25 April 2016.

This new publication looks at 1916 in central Dublin, an area which formed the backbone of the 1916 Rising. We know that many of the men and women who fought in the 1916 Rising were from the north inner-city area with 287 of those who fought in the GPO alone hailing from this part of the city.

Dublin City Council had a strong connection to the 1916 Rising through the involvement of elected members and Dublin Corporation employees, while the City Hall was a garrison building, held by the Irish Citizen Army. A new book, Dublin City Council and the 1916 Rising, published on 9 May, is the first detailed study of the impact of Dublin City Council on the 1916 Rising and in turn its effect on the council. The thirteen essays in this book, researched and written by experts in their field, explore the events and strategies leading into and following the Rising as it concerned the City Council.The book features biographies of 151 persons who were involved in the Rising and were either employed by the Council at the time, or subsequently. This wide-ranging book is essential for a complete understanding of the Rising.A number of elected members of Dublin City Council fought in 1916, including Councillor Richard O’Carroll, who fought with the Irish Volunteers at an outpost of Jacob’s Factory. Two of the men executed after the Rising – Eamonn Ceannt and John MacBride – were council employees. Ceannt, also known as Edmund T. Kent, was a valued employee in the Rates Department, while Major MacBride was the city’s Water-Bailiff. City Hall, the Corporation’s premier building, was garrisoned on Easter Monday by the Irish Citizen Army under Captain Sean Connolly, who in civilian life was an official in the Motor Registration Department; his brother Joseph Connolly, a member of Dublin Fire Brigade, fought with Michael Mallin and Countess Markiewicz at the College of Surgeons. Ever concerned with delivering information services, staff of Dublin Public Libraries also played an active role in communications during the Rising.The contributors are Sheila Carden, Shay Cody, Evelyn Conway, Donal Fallon, Las Fallon, David Flood, John Gibney, Anthony Jordan, Conor McNamara, Martin Maguire, Thomas J. Morrissey SJ, Seamus Ó Maitiú, Lawrence White, Padraig Yeates.The book is edited by John Gibney, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and the author of several books on Irish history. He has been a research fellow at the University of Notre Dame and NUI Galway. In 2012 he produced the acclaimed RTÉ Radio 1 documentary The Animal Gangs (broadcast July 2012) on the folklore of inner city Dublin. He has worked in heritage tourism in Dublin since 2001.The book is available from Four Courts Press and other bookshops.

The archives of Kevin Street Library were accessioned by Dublin City Library and Archive in 2012. It is an important collection for exploring the history of Dublin Public Libraries, Cumann na Leabharlann, and also includes materials relating to the 1916 Rising and the Emergency Period in Ireland. The collection has recently been catalogued, with part-funding provided by Dublin City Council Decade of Commemoration Fund.  The Kevin Street Library archives can now be accessed by members of the public in the Reading Room of Dublin City Library and Archive.Kevin Street Library ArchiveOpened in 1904, Kevin Street Library was built after Dublin Corporation was encouraged to buy a plot of land on the street. With John Whelan as its first chief librarian, it is an example of the trend to provide free access to books to the citizens of the city. This collection contains material on a schools scheme, which provided free books to schoolchildren and material from the Dublin Technical Schools, both showing how the libraries resources were used to provide better access to reading materials for the citizens of Dublin. The library also subscribed to magazines which covered many different areas of interest from motors, travel and economics as well as Irish interests with Irish Monthly and An T-Oglach available to read. What the collection also tells us is the difficulties that the library encountered in its early years. Railway strikes meant that coal could not be delivered to heat the library. The outbreak of the First World War meant a reduction in reading material due to paper shortages. The library had to adapt to different functions due to outside factors including displaying pamphlets sent from London which encouraged men to join the war in Europe. The Soldiers and Sailors Family Association also had weekly meetings in the library throughout the duration of the conflict. The Irish Civil War also forced the library to adapt a new role when it was asked to be an aid dispensary due to the Peter Street Dispensary being occupied by soldiers. While providing us with an insight to the running of a public library in the early twentieth century, this collection also offers an insight into how the difficult political landscape at the time affected the library and the people who used it.Easter RisingWhile most of the Easter Rising material in this collection is made up of letters sent by members of the public, explaining how the rising prevented them from returning books they loaned, they give an insight into how the rising affected people's routines and lives. A letter from a Mr T.L. Townshend for example, asks the library to reprieve a woman of paying a fine for a late book due to the book being destroyed along with her house during the conflict. Another letter from a former employee of the library was written to notify the library of the death of her husband, who was killed in the Custom House during the events. A letter sent by Eamon O’Duibhir is of significance as it was sent from Reading Prison, a prison that was used to hold many who took part in the rising. The letter mentions that Henry Dixon was also imprisoned there. Dixon along with John Whelan was central to the foundation of Cumann na Leabharlann, the Irish Library Association. Dixon had been a campaigner for Irish industry and culture from the 1880s onwards and was involved in many republican organisations set up to preserve Irish traditions.Cumann na LeabharlannCumann na Leabharlann, or the Irish Library Association in English, was established in 1904 The collection contains the constitution and rules of the association, of which the first objective was to promote the establishment of public libraries and reading rooms. Thomas W. Lyster, who was Vice President of the association and also Director of the National Library of Ireland, originally voiced his concerns in a letter from February 1900 that the time wasn’t right for such an association to be set up but that he strongly believed that such an association should be set up eventually and recommended that the constitutions of the American Library Association and the Library Association of the UK be looked at as templates for the proposed constitution for the Irish Library Association. Lyster is later named as being a Vice-President of Cumann na Leabharlann. A letter written by author John DeCourcy MacDonnell is also included in the collection where he voices his approval of such an association being set up. With the Public Libraries (Ireland) Act of 1902 allowing rural districts to set up public libraries, Cumann na Leabharlann played an important role in making this happen. Letters from around Ireland are included in the collection that highlight the difficulties but also the successes of setting up these public libraries across the country. An Leabharlann, which was the association’s journal was also central to the aims of the association with a cover of the first edition included in the collection. View a small sample of documents from the Kevin Street Library Collection on flickr. The FutureDublin City Public Libraries announced in 2013 the commencement of works to refurbish Kevin Street Library. As highlighted through the archives, Library services have seen enormous change over the years. Kevin Street Library is in need of refurbishment works to accommodate the requirements of a public library beyond those envisaged when the building first opened in 1904. View more information about Kevin Street Library refurbishment project.About Guest bloggerKevin Healion is an archivist with Eneclann.

'A Poet in Bits' was a poetry reading by Ronan Brown at Pearse Street Library on 19th August 2015.Ronan Brown was born in Manchester and grew up in Dalkey in the 50s and 60s. He worked as a chartered surveyor but has been writing poetry since the 1970s. Browne was a former member of 'Chapter and Verse', the writers' group which met in the Killiney Court Hotel. His work has been published in anthologies.Part of Pearse Street Library's Speaking Words Series.

Poetry reading by Australian poet, Ross Donlon at Pearse Street Library on 13th May 2015.Ross Donlon lives in Castlemaine in Australia. His poems have been widely published in Australia and Ireland. The Blue Dressing Gown was published in 2011 by Profile Poetry. Tightrope Horizon (Five Islands Press) was published in 2003. Shh and Other Love Poems and My Ship were published  by Mark Time Books in 2009. Shh has been anthologised in Poems for All Occasions and elsewhere. In 2014 Ross published Awakening: Poems from the collection of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Light Travelling: a sampler of new and collected poems. His latest book is Sjøvegan (The Sea Road).In 2009 Ross was awarded the Varuna Writers' House Dorothy Hewett Flagship Fellowship for Poetry, and in 2010 he was awarded the Wenlock Festival Poetry Prize at the Arvon International Poetry Competition by chief judge, Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.Part of Pearse Street Library's Speaking Words Series.You can listen to Ross reading his poetry here (playing time: 14:09 mins):

Over Easter weekend we tweeted quotes from Monica Roberts' 1916 Diary, which provides a unique eyewitness account of the Rising including details of how it impacted on daily life (view tweets below).  Monica Roberts was a young woman living in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin. She set up a voluntary organization, ‘The Band of Helpers to the Soldiers’ to provide gifts for Irish troops at the front, particularly those serving with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Royal Flying Corps. The Monica Roberts Collection is fully digitised and searchable online at Digital Repository Ireland

On Wednesday, 27th May 2015, Dublin City Council's Public Library Service took possession of a copy of a rare eye-witness account of the outbreak of the 1916 Easter Rising. The account was in the form of a letter written by Elsie McDermid (seen on the right), a popular opera singer of the era, to her mother in England on the occasion of Elsie's visit to Dublin. She was in Dublin to perform in Gilbert and Sullivan shows at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. However, the performances were cancelled as a result of the dramatic outbreak of the Easter Rising on Monday 24th April 1916. Elsie wrote a 26-page letter and in it she related, among other things, the digging of trenches in St Stephen’s Green and eye-witness accounts of the first casualties on the streets of Dublin.Visit the 'Elsie McDermid Letter' Image Gallery or view PDF version below.The letter, which includes Elsie’s hand-drawn maps of Dublin during the Rising, now forms part of a personal 1916 archive owned by Elsie’s nephew Colin McDermid.Colin visited Dublin in May 2015 and donated a digital copy of the letter to Dublin City Public Libraries. The copy formed an important part of the 'Citizens in Conflict: Dublin 1916' exhibition at Dublin City Public Library and Archive, Pearse Street (January to mid-June 2016). We are delighted to say also that the letter and related material is now available online (follow Image Gallery link above). Read more about the donation of the letter at the Mansion House on the 27th May 2015.The letter begins “We are living in stirring times. I am writing this to be posted if there is any post office left and will keep it till I know it will go.” Elsie McDermid kept the letter and other souvenirs of 1916, including shell casings and postcards, which her family preserved. The letter has never been published in historical accounts of the Rising but it and the other items in Elsie’s 1916 archive featured on the BBC's 'Antiques Roadshow' in the Spring of 2015.Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive would like to extend a sincere thanks and its appreciation to Colin for the donation.Elsie McDermid made her stage debut in Covent Garden in 1914 and had a London stage career well into the 1920s. She performed leading roles in many Gilbert and Sullivan classics including ‘The Pirates of Penzance’, ‘The Mikado’ and ‘The Gondoliers’. She also performed roles in Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ and Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’. Born in Middlesbrough in 1889, she died in Eston, North Yorkshire, in 1933.Visit the 'Elsie McDermid Letter' Image Gallery or view PDF version below. The Elsie McDermid 1916 Letter - Usage StatementOwnership of the Elsie McDermid Letter resides with Colin McDermid. Colin has very kindly granted Dublin City Council rights to reproduce the letter here.Personal Use:Printing or downloading of the letter (text, images) is permitted on a temporary, non-commercial basis for personal use only.Commercial Use and Reproduction:Those wishing to  use the content of the Elsie McDermid Letter (text, images) for commercial purposes or to publish* the content should contact Dublin City Public Libraries ([email protected]) for permission. When applying please state which content is being used and give the precise details of the type of use planned – exhibition, book, magazine, newspaper, performance or other. Conditions to apply.*Includes website or other electronic means.