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Jacob's Biscuit Factory on Bishop Street was one of the sites occupied by the Irish Volunteers during Easter Week, 1916, and has acquired iconic status within Irish history.   The Jacob's Biscuit Factory Archive has recently being catalogued and opened to public access in the Dublin City Library and Archive.  In conjunction with the Business Information Centre the exhibition "W&R Jacob and Easter Rising" will be open to the public from 13 April, with a talk by Dr Séamas Ó Maithiú on 21 April.Right: Sketch of Bishop Street Factory, c.1900s, Jacobs Biscuit Factory Archive (DCLA) (View larger image)Whilst researching how factory workers both participated in and were affected by the Rising in different ways, our guest blogger and Dublin City Archives intern Saffron East was enthralled by the dramatic witness account written by 35 year old  William George Smith,  an Assistant Manager at the factory,  which can be  accessed in the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Ireland.:Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, St John Ambulance and 1916During Easter Week, many civilians were caught in the crossfire between the rebels and the British Army. St John Ambulance was an important organisation during the Rising, as it worked to organise emergency hospitals and medical care for civilian casualties across the city. William George Smith was a key member of the W&R Jacob Ambulance and Nursing Division of St John Ambulance and he kept an account of his personal experiences of Easter Week, which can be accessed in the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Ireland, and tells us the story of how the Rising impacted this extraordinary Dubliner.Left: Portrait photo of William G. Smyth, Jacobs Biscuit Factory Archive (DCLA) (click to view larger image)Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, began as an ordinary day for William Smith, as he took his sons on the tram to spend some time in Merrion Square during their Easter holidays. On the tram, Smith writes that they overheard other passengers speaking of 'trouble in Dublin and that the Sinn Fein volunteers were causing commotion.' Smith enquired with the tram driver, who did not know much as the trams had not been allowed into the city centre, but said that 'he heard the Volunteers were rising.' Smith and his boys 'thought that it was probably only an ordinary riot which the police would soon quell' so continued their journey. Further disruption to the trams meant that the family had to walk home in the afternoon, where they ran into a friend of Smith's: a Four Courts officer of the St John's Ambulance Brigade, who explained 'that the Sinn Feiners had risen in rebellion and had captured Dublin Castle, the GPO, Four Courts, Boland's hill and some other places.'The next day, Smith decided to cycle into the city to investigate. He travelled via Peter Street, where he saw Jacob's Biscuit Factory. He describes that 'everything there seemed peaceful in fact, unnaturally so for the street was deserted.' Smith cycled around the city, finding 'a large crowd assembled' near Redmond's Hill, and 'saw the windows of the General Office broken and filled with flour bags, behind which were men with rifles.' He described: 'The crowd seemed not generally to be showing much sympathy with the rebels, or were taking it rather as a joke.' Smith cycled to St Stephen's Green, finding the rebels 'digging trenches and barricading the place. Many of them were mere boys; in fact only about one in ten was a man; they had a great many young girls, ranging from about 13 to 20...'  On this Tuesday, William Smith witnessed his first casualty of the Rising, as he saw a civilian man shot by the rebels. He wrote that this 'was certainly a shock, because it was such a cold blooded affair to shoot down in this way an old unarmed civilian, and for a few minutes I felt decidedly upset.' Smith wrote that, later that day, 'one could hear the curious tap-tap of the machine guns, a sinister sound which one could never get wholly used to.'On Wednesday, Smith began working on organising extra help within Dublin's hospitals, and creating emergency hospitals in new locations around the city. He also helped in the creation of an emergency ambulance service, where men travelled with stretchers to bring in wounded civilians. This was dangerous work, and many of these St John’s Ambulance volunteers were wounded or killed in the crossfire. Smith recalled that he would 'never forget the dreadful wounds we had to look after that night... The constant rattle of rifle fire, the sound of bombs exploding.'Above: W& R Jacob  Ambulance and Nursing Division, including Smyth (undated).  Jacobs Biscuit Factory Archive (DCLA) (click to view larger image)Smith wrote that Thursday 'was the most miserable day I ever spent.' As well as organising ambulances, Smith arranged for moving wounded patients to different hospitals, as they were all overcrowded. On patrol for wounded civilians, Smith found that Mount Street was 'a very "hot spot" indeed... sufficient to say that for many days this district was a regular death trap to its inhabitants.' That afternoon, Smith opened a new hospital in a school, and had to beg the local hotels for bedding and furniture supplies. Friends provided food for this hospital, so the patients would not starve. This hospital became Smith's base for the rest of the rising. Smith wrote that he 'lost all count of time... It is difficult to recollect all the things one did during that dreadful time and the strange things one came across.' Smith witnessed many people 'digging graves to bury the dead, as they could not be disposed of otherwise.' He wrote that 'Stephen's Green had some dead buried in very shallow grave, for I saw in one case boots sticking out of the soil' and that 'one doctor whom I knew had to bury an officer in his back garden, whose name he did not know and who had nothing on him by which he could be identified'.Smith wrote of a near-disaster: 'the rebels got wind of our taking patients and the rumour spread amongst them that all patients were to be taken out of the hospital and the military were then to occupy it and attack the [Jacob’s Biscuit] factory from that point. This they resolved to stop and brought up a machine gun... and were about to fire when MacDonagh, one of their leaders, came up and protested and finally they took a vote on the question and by a few votes decided not to fire and afterwards found out the truth of the matter.'He also recounted the bravery of his peers, including one of his ambulance drivers who 'was shot through the thigh whilst driving a car full of wounded past the Four Courts, but he drove on until he reached the Castle Hospital, when he fell off his seat.'William George Smith's account includes many more anecdotal stories of his experience of the Easter Rising. He writes of the resilience and bravery of many Dubliners who pulled together to make the limited hospital supplies work as best they could, and travelled around the city collecting the wounded despite the dangerous conditions.The first ambulance class under the St. John Ambulance Association regulations was held in W&R Jacob in 1906, and throughout the twentieth century, the W&R Jacob Ambulance and Nursing Division of St John Ambulance attracted  employees of the factory to get involved with something practical and social in the workplace. Various records relating to their activities in the work place are held by Jacob's Biscuit Factory Archive  at Dublin City Library and Archive.  Additional records held by  St. John Ambulance Ireland National Headquarters.About our Guest BloggerThis article was prepared by Saffron East as part of the internship program with the M.Phil in Public History and Cultural Heritage at Trinity College Dublin.

I am currently digitizing photographs from the Fáilte Ireland Photographic Collection at Dublin City Library & Archive. These photos date from back to about the 1930s up until the present day. There are also negatives, in all sizes from glass plates to 5x4 negatives to small 35mm. The negatives are in good condition and due to their size they retain a great amount of quality.The photos for the most part are of Ireland's popular tourist destinations but also of places that are historically important. The photos show the unique beauty of Ireland and its unique culture. The boxes are organized by county. So I started with Wicklow as it is where I am from. After getting through several photos I found one funny picture of a lady hugging a cross and later on I found one similar. It was from Glendalough. I’ve been to Glendalough a lot; my grandparents are buried there. I’ve never noticed this large cross and certainly never noticed anyone hugging it. The cross is 'St Kevin's Cross' or 'The Wishing Cross'.Another picture that caught my eye was of a cross that was standing inside what looked like an old stone room. This cross was distinctive in its appearance. The cross appeared to be cracked in several places and also had a relief of a crucifixion on it. What also struck me was its location as if it was in storage or locked away.View the photos on flickr.The Wishing CrossSt Kevin's Cross as it is also known is almost four meters high. It stands in the graveyard near to the cathedral. The name 'Wishing Cross' derives from the legend that anyone who comes to the cross should try to embrace it. If they can wrap their arms fully around it and touch their hands on the other side a wish can be granted. The cross was dug and straightened and reinforced in 1989 so today it looks different from the pictures from Fáilte Ireland which are from between the 1940s and 1950s.The Market CrossThis Cross dates from about the 12th century. The name comes from the original location of the cross. It stood near the front of the entrance gateway where a market took place. Due to increasing traffic it was moved in 1912 to St Kevin's Kitchen where it stood before being placed in the visitor's centre. The cross was rebuilt from several different pieces in the 19th century. These different pieces show evidence of different types of wear and decay so it is believed they could have been used for different functions. Another piece seems to have been buried for some time. The pieces were found scattered around the Glendalough site.  The cross features the figure of the crucified Christ with another figure under him, possibly a saint or bishop.All black and white photographs are from the Fáilte Ireland Photographic Collection, Dublin City Library & Archive. See more Fáilte Ireland images in 'Through the Looking Glass': Tourism in Dublin 1940s-1950sAbout our Guest BloggerWritten by Joe Melican, Solas Student in the National Print Museum, on work experience in Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street.

Citizens in Conflict #8. In 1916 the Dublin Harbour constituency was represented at Westminster by Alfred (Alfie) Byrne MP.  Dublin Harbour contained Mountjoy Ward, North Dock Ward, Rotunda Ward, (except a portion in the College Green constituency) and the portion of South Dock ward north of a line drawn along the centre of Great Brunswick Street. It also included the portion of Trinity Ward lying north of a line drawn along the centre of Great Brunswick street and the towns of Ringsend and Irishtown as well as sections of Beggar’s Bush. About 8,000 men had the vote in the constituency.Until his death in 1915 the local MP was William Abraham, aged 73, who lived in London, though originally from Limerick. Abraham’s background was in the Land League and he had been associated with craft unions in the 1880s, but those days were long behind him. Harbour contained a very large working-class population and trade unionist William O’Brien suggested that it was the ‘best Labour seat in Dublin and win it we must.’ James Connolly was suggested as a candidate. However Connolly declined to run and instead three nationalists contested the seat. Pierce O’Mahony, an old Parnellite, was one of the very few Home Rule MPs to have associated with the workers in 1913. Alfie Byrne, on the other hand, was the owner of the Verdon Bar, at 37 Talbot Street and a city councillor. He lived on the North Strand. and had been caricatured by Jim Larkin in the Irish Worker as ‘Alf Bung’ a man who entertained ‘slum landlords, scabs, prostitutes’ bullies … Hibs, Orangemen…the brothel-keeper (and) the white slaver’ in his pub. But Byrne won the election by 2,200 votes to O’Mahony’s 917. O’Mahony had strongly supported John Redmond and recruitment, while Byrne had opposed conscription, war-taxes and the war effort in general. He had shared anti-conscription platforms with James Connolly among others. The result is an indication that anti-war feeling was growing in Dublin.Image above: "Councillor Thos. Lawler and Alderman A. Byrne, who were before the firing line on Sunday and helped the wounded." Irish Independent, 29 July 1914 reporting on the shooting of three civilians at Bachelor's Walk on 26 July 2014, in the wake of the Howth gun-running (click to view larger image)The make up of a protest meeting in September 1915 at the Phoenix Park, shows the extent of cooperation between the various elements. Among those in attendance were Byrne, Thomas Farren president of the Trades Council, veteran separatist Henry Dixon, Sinn Féin’s Tom Kelly, The O’Rahilly, Councillor Lawrence O’Neill, James Connolly, feminist Hannah Sheehy-Skefffington, Piaras Beasley of the Volunteers and Larry Ginnell MP, nationalist MP for Meath.After the Rising Byrne involved himself in campaigning for prisoners, visiting internees in Britain as Cumann na mBan activist Brigid Foley remembered ‘we were entertained to lunch by Alfie Byrne in the House of Commons and to tea-with strawberries and cream- at Lyons’ Corner House. He came to the station with us and loaded us down with boxes of chocolates.’Nevertheless in 1918 Byrne lost his seat to Sinn Féin’s Phil Shanahan. However after independence he would have a long career in both local and national politics.AboutThis article is one in a series created by Dr Brian Hanley, historian-in-residence at Dublin City Library & Archive, to coincide with the exhibition 'Citizens in Conflict: Dublin 1916 / Éirí Amach sa Chathair: Baile Átha Cliath 1916', running at Dublin City Library & Archive from January to June 2016.Dublin Remembers 1916 Programme of Events | Hashtag: #Dublin1916

Digging through the photographic collections of the Dublin & Irish Collections, Pearse Street, I came across this set of photos from May 31st 1985. These photos were of the instantly recognisable collection of beards known as the ‘The Dubliners’ standing on a bridge playing music. The event was the unveiling of a plaque that announced the renaming the Ballybough Bridge to the Luke Kelly Bridge.

Technology is an ever-changing form for the collection and communication of information. What happens, however, when the form of equipment is no longer the current practice of collecting information? What happens when the method is out dated and showing its age? At Dublin City Library and Archive, the staff work hard to preserve the documented history of Ireland even in its less prevalent forms. Numerous images were generously donated from Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism development authority.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, launched the book 'Richmond Barracks 1916: We were there, 77 women of the Easter Rising' to a packed audience at the Chapel, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8, on International Women's Day, Tuesday, 8 March 2016.

The 50th anniversary of the destruction of Nelson's Pillar occurred on Tuesday, 8th March 2016, and to mark the occasion Dublin City Archives held a commemorative event entailing a talk by historian Donal Fallon, poetry read by Alastair Smeaton, and ballads by Luke Cheevers and Tony Fitzpatrick.View the photo slideshow of the event below. View the photos on flickr.The full programme was as follows:Extract from Evening Correspondent (Dated 16 February 1808). Read by Alastair SmeatonLord Nelson (Tommy Makem). Ballad sung by Tony FitzpatrickThe Pillar: the Life and Afterlife of the Nelson Pillar. Talk given by Donal FallonAdmiral Nelson (Luke Cheevers). Ballad sung by Luke CheeversDublin (Louis MacNeice). Poem read by Alastair SmeatonNelson’s Farewell (Joe Dolan from Galway). Ballad sung by Tony Fitzpatrick

On Tuesday, 8th March 1966, 161 years after the Battle of Trafalgar, at precisely 1:32am, a bomb exploded in O'Connell Street in the heart of Dublin and the statue of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson was destroyed. The badly damaged monument had to be entirely removed as a result of the extensive damage. The head of Nelson was recovered, badly damaged but intact, and found a permanent home in the Reading Room of the Dublin City Library and Archive on Pearse Street, where he keeps an eye on the readers researching the history of his native city.On this, the 50th anniversary of the destruction of Nelson's Pillar, Dublin City Archives are holding a commemorative event at 11.00am entailing a talk by historian Donal Fallon, poetry read by Alastair Smeaton, and songs by Francis Devine.The monument was among the first and grandest monuments of its day.  Standing approximately 40 meters tall, the pillar dominated O’Connell Street (formally Sackville Street) from 1809 until it was blown up in 1966.  Having paid an entry fee, locals and visitors could climb its 168 steps to be offered an unprecedented perspective of Dublin city.  After the monument was demolished, Nelson's 'head' was stolen by NCAD students, and used in various fund-raising pranks.  It then spent some time in the Civic Museum, before being moved to its present 'resting' place in the Reading Room of the Dublin City Library and Archive.Left: Engraving: J. Warburton, J. Whitelaw, Robert Wash, History of the City of Dublin, 1818, Vol. 2 (click to view larger image) The Building of Nelson's PillarSoon after the Battle of Trafalgar, 21st October 1805, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, James Vance, convened a group of dignitaries: bankers, nobility, clergy, merchants, etc, to decide one way to honour the memory of Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. The choice was to build a monument: a pillar. Initially it was William Wilkins who designed the project, which included a Roman galley on the top of the pillar. Later, the architect Francis Johnston (who also designed the General Post Office, Royal Hibernian Academy, St. George's Church and the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle) changed the original design placing a statue of Nelson instead of the galley.Above: Nelson's Pillar Engraving: Individual print (click to view larger image)In 1808, the foundation stone for Nelson's Pillar in Dublin's O'Connell Street was laid. The statue was funded by public subscription. The Doric column was 121 feet high, with 168 spiral steps inside, and was topped by a 13-foot high statue in Portland stone of Vice-Admiral Nelson carved by the Cork sculptor Thomas Kirk.On 21st October 1809, the fourth anniversary of the battle, the Pillar was opened to the public for the first time. For 10d in the beginning and for 6d later, the public could enter the column and go up to contemplate Dublin city from the top.A porch at street level designed by G.P. Beater was added in 1894.With the advent of trams, the Pillar became a tram terminus, and a popular meeting place for friends and lovers. "I'll meet you at the Pillar" became a popular saying. . Above Left: Nelson's Pillar, 1960s. Above Right: Pillar Entrance, 1960s (click images to view larger versions) . Above Left: Nelson's Pillar, 1966. Above Right: Nelson's head (click images to view larger versions)The site of Nelson's Pillar is now occupied by The Spire.Above: Nelson's head at its former home in the Civic Museum on South William Street and in the company of the well-loved comedian, Hal Roche, 1999. (click to view larger image)These photos are from the Dublin City Photographic Collection. Visit our online Image Galleries.

These photographs tell a part of the story of tourism in Dublin, offering an insight into how the city has been seen from both the inside and out. The timeline created by these images allows for an interesting comparison between then and now.

Citizens in Conflict #5. One of the most significant radical women's organisations in the pre-1916 period was Inghínídhe na hÉireann, (Daughters of Ireland) founded around 1900. Many of those who would come to prominence in Cumann na mBan, the Irish Citizens Army or in politics more generally had been members of the Inghínídhe. These included Maud Gonne, Helena Molony, Jenny Wyse Power, Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh and Marie Perolz.They emerged in the context of the Boer war campaign and protests at royal visits. Margaret Quinn  explained that the organisation originated from the Committee formed to give children of Dublin a treat on the occasion of the Visit of Queen Victoria in 1900. The idea was to reward the children who had not consented to go to the Phoenix Park to cheer and wave to Queen Victoria. The treat was given in Clonturk Park. Many Inghínídhe meetings and tableaux took place at the Antient Concert Rooms (image below, click to view larger version) in Great Brunswick Street. The first headquarters of Inghínídhe was at 196 Great Brunswick Street. They later moved to North Great Georges Street.Mrs. M. Hyland-Lalor wrote: 'At Easter, 1901, Gaelic tableaux were presented at the Ancient (Sic) Concert Rooms... Miss Alice Milligan and "Ethna Carbery", the poetess, had much to do with the success of that venture. Dr Douglas Hyde and Seamus McManus were amongst the performers, the whole cast numbering more than one hundred persons.'Maggie Quinn 'Inghiní na hÉireann were the first to introduce Tableaux relating to Irish history. We showed them in the Antient Concert Rooms in Brunswick Street. Sinéad Flanagan (Mrs De Valera), Máire Ní Chillin, Alice Milligan, Anna Johnson (Eithne Carbery), Máire Ní Shiubhlaigh, Susan Varian, Helen Laird, Susan Mitchell, and I think, Ella Young and her sister May co-operated to make them a success as did all of the boys of our acquaintance... out of these tableaux grew the idea of the Irish Players.' (image below, click to view larger version)AboutThis article is one in a series created by Dr Brian Hanley, historian-in-residence at Dublin City Library & Archive, to coincide with the exhibition 'Citizens in Conflict: Dublin 1916 / Éirí Amach sa Chathair: Baile Átha Cliath 1916', running at Dublin City Library & Archive from January to June 2016.Dublin Remembers 1916 Programme of Events | Hashtag: #Dublin1916