Beidh Leabharlanna Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath dúnta ó dé Sathairn 3 go dtí Luain 5 Meitheamh 2023 (araon san áireamh). Athosclóidh leabharlanna brainse Dé Máirt, 6 Meitheamh.
In 1918, news started to filter through of a ‘mystery malady’, a ‘mysterious war disease’. It appeared to originate in Spain as it was first widely reported there, hence the name it has been called ever since, the Spanish Flu. Although, first reported in Spain, the disease probably originated in a different location. Regardless of its origin, the flu wreaked havoc across the globe, claiming the lives of at least 40 million people from 1918 to 1920. The true figure will never be known. It is estimated that one fifth of the world’s population caught the flu.The flu started to make its way to Ireland by the early summer of 1918. On 10 June, an ‘unusual outbreak of illness’ was reported in Belfast, mostly amongst soldiers and female factory workers. By the end of June, 200 cases were reported in Dublin, 60 children in one convent alone, 40 workers in a factory.The flu was described by some in Dublin as a plague by early July. Death numbers were started to filter through, 2 in Dublin, 5 or 6 in Lurgan, 100 in Belfast. There were numerous deaths in Derry. Several people were falling on the streets in Cork. The flu came in two forms, one a mild type of illness, the second more severe. Dying patients sometimes had temperatures as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit, became unconscious and twitched frequently. They usually died between the sixth and eleventh days of the disease.From the middle of July, the first wave of the flu started to recede. When the second wave struck in October 1918, it was clear to most that the country was in the grips of a severe flu pandemic. Like the first wave, Leinster and Ulster were the areas most affected by the second wave. The second wave was far more destructive than the first. There were many reports of unimaginable horrors inflicted on whole families.There was a case of a man in Clontarf returning home after burying his two sons to find his wife dead too. In Enniscorthy in Wexford, 3 young children from the one family died on the same day. Schools in Dublin city and suburbs were severely affected and were closed down. Absenteeism was rife in businesses. October and November of 1918 saw a paralysis in trade.The second wave, the deadliest of the three waves, dissipated in most places in Ireland by the end of November. The third wave came in February 1919. In Gloucester Prison, Pierce McCan, 35 years-of-age, newly-elected TD for Tipperary East died from the flu on 6 March. There was very little consensus within the medical profession on what was the most effective treatment for the flu. A mixture of whiskey and hot water with sugar was the most widely available. Non-prescription medicines were in high demand as people self-medicated during the pandemic. Hugh quantities of tonics, cough medicines and poultices were sold by pharmacies. Bovril and other beef teas like Oxo were very popular too. Despite all the tonics promoted and sold, bed rest and nursing were still considered the best way of beating the flu.By the end of Spring 1919, the flu finally ran its brutal course in Ireland. It had caused huge devastation throughout the country. An official figure of 20,057 deaths were recorded as being caused by flu during the three waves, although this is likely to be a conservative figure. There were also a lot more deaths from pneumonia, an excess figure of 3,231 deaths from pneumonia in 1918 and 1919 which also can be attributed to the Influenza Pandemic giving a figure of at least 23,288 deaths directly related to the epidemic.Assuming the same for Ireland as the worldwide trend of a 2.5 per cent fatality rate, an approximate number of 800,000 Irish people caught the illness, about one fifth of the population. Taking excess pneumonia deaths into account, the figure was 900,000 people.Mortality in Ireland, like elsewhere, peaked in the mid-life period, between the ages of 25 and 34. There was a surprisingly strong correlation between the social classes of those who died, it was a socially neutral disease. It was more job-dependent than class-dependent. Those who worked with the public were more likely to catch and, therefore, die from the flu. The influenza pandemic, ultimately, left behind a trail of destruction in Ireland, affecting everyone in every county from all classes and creeds.Blog post by: Cormac Moore, Historian.
Irish nationalists drew parallels between their own struggle and that in India, particularly the brutality of colonialism. In mid-1919, the British government faced rebellion both overseas and at home. India was consumed with unrest as demobilised soldiers and economic recession created unstable conditions in the region, particularly the Punjab. On 10 April 1919, rioting began in the city of Amritsar, following the arrest and deportation of Indian national leaders. All meetings and public assemblies were banned in response to the violence; when a large crowd gathered at an enclosed public space known as Jallianwalla Bagh, British and Gurkha troops, led by General Reginald Dyer, opened fire without warning. At the subsequent enquiry in October, Dyer himself justified his actions by stating that it was ‘no longer merely a question of dispersing the crowd, but of producing a sufficient moral effect from a military point of view’ – in other words, setting an example.The image opposite, from the satirical newspaper, The Lepracaun, compares British rule in the two countries: executions and burning of homesteads in Ireland, while India saw the brutal practice of execution by cannon, particularly associated with the British suppression of the rebellion of 1857. At home, the campaign against British rule in Ireland commenced with an ambush on a police patrol in Tipperary in January 1919, the same day the First Dáil met at the Mansion House in Dublin.Dyer was eventually dismissed from the army but commanded widespread support in the UK, with one MP suggesting that he be sent to Ireland to use similar methods to defeat Sinn Fein. Another warned that the same would soon happen in Ireland: as the Marquess of Crewe said, ‘for "Amritsar" read "Limerick" or "Ennis," or some town in the South and West, and conceive a precise repetition of the circumstances there.’Dyer was eventually dismissed from the army but commanded widespread support in the UK, with one MP suggesting that he be sent to Ireland to use similar methods to defeat Sinn Fein. Another warned that the same would soon happen in Ireland: as the Marquess of Crewe said, ‘for "Amritsar" read "Limerick" or "Ennis," or some town in the South and West, and conceive a precise repetition of the circumstances there.’Dublin Irish and Local Studies CollectionThe Dublin and Irish Local Studies Collection includes new and second-hand material on Dublin City and County covering a range of books, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, maps, prints, drawings, theatre programmes, playbills, posters, ballad sheets, audiovisual materials and ephemera. Library and archive material cannot be borrowed or removed from the Reading Room. Collections can be accessed by filling out request forms and can be viewed in the Reading Room only.Blogpost by: Bernard Kelly, Historian in Residence, Dublin City Library and Archive.
On December 6, 1922, the Irish Free State came formally into existence after the Free State Act gave effect to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was exactly one year after the signing of the Treaty. Under the Free State Act, the Governor General would be the King’s representative in Ireland. The first holder of the post was former Irish Parliamentary Party MP Timothy Healy, who was sworn in at his home in Chapelizod.Opposite an undated portrait of Tim Healy (Dixon Slides Collection, DCLA)Healy was born in Bantry, Co. Cork in 1855. He worked in England as a railway clerk and then from 1878 in London as parliamentary correspondent of the Nation. He followed the family participation in Irish politics (his elder brother Thomas was a solicitor and Member of Parliament for North Wexford and his younger brother Maurice was a solicitor and MP for Cork City. After being arrested for intimidation in connection with the Land League, Tim was elected as MP for Wexford in 1880.In Parliament Healy became an authority on the Irish land question, and created the ‘Healy Clause’ of the Land Act of 1881, which protected tenant farmers’ agrarian improvements from rent increases imposed by landlords. This not only made him popular throughout nationalist Ireland but also won seats for the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) in Protestant Ulster. He was called to the Bar in 1884 and became a Queen’s Counsel in 1899In the IPP, Healy’s relations with Parnell were always strained and he finally broke with ‘the Chief’ in 1886 when the Kitty O’Shea divorce scandal became common knowledge. Although he was a strong supporter of Home Rule, he was not an admirer of Parnell’s successors in the IPP and he supported Sinn Féin after 1917.During the War of Independence, Healy recognised the futility of the insistence by the Ireland Secretary, Sir Hamar Greenwood that the IRA should surrender their arms before engaging in talks about a truce. He said:The point I gather, taken by the blessed Cabinet donkeys, was that the Shins should surrender arms before a truce. This is worthy of Gallipoli, Antwerp, Deniken, Wrangel and the cohort of cods. I am for doing business and making peace.Because he was regarded as an elder statesman by the British and Irish governments, both sides proposed him in 1922 as governor-general of the new Irish Free State. The Office of Governor-General was largely ceremonial but many Nationalists regarded the existence of the office as offensive to republican principles and a symbol of continued Irish involvement in the United Kingdom.The office's role was diminished over time by the Irish Government and it was officially abolished on 11 December 1936. The Irish government set the term of office for the Governor General at five years. Tim Healy died at his home in Chapelizod in March 1931, aged 75 years.Dublin Irish and Local Studies The Dublin and Irish Local Studies Collection includes new and second-hand material on Dublin City and County covering a range of books, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, maps, prints, drawings, theatre programmes, playbills, posters, ballad sheets, audiovisual materials and ephemera. Library and archive material cannot be borrowed or removed from the Reading Room. Collections can be accessed by filling out request forms and can be viewed in the Reading Room only.Blop post by: Dr Mary Muldowney, Dublin City Council Historian in Residence, Dublin Central.
The Dublin City Library and Archive holds a beautiful image of the old Weaver’s Hall on The Coombe Dublin, a building still fondly remembered by older citizens in the area. The image shows a dignified guild hall, with a statue of King George II by Van Nost holding shuttles and other implements used in the weaving process set in an alcove above the main entrance. Although the Weaver’s Hall is long gone, there is still a lot of evidence of this once major industry that existed in this area over a 1,000 year timespan. The most obvious are various placenames. Weaver’s Square off Cork Street, and the adjacent Ormond Street commemorated both the Huguenot weavers who settled here in great numbers from the late 1600’s and the man who invited them over, the Duke of Ormond. Nearby Newmarket was constructed in the 1670’s by the Earl of Meath in response to this rapidly growing industry, to facilitate trade in wool, hides and flax and also the finished products. The Earl also included space for his own market, and this added to the unique shape and layout of Newmarket, still with us today.Above: Illustration showing statue of George II in niche on first floor facade.Earlier evidence of weaving has also been found in recent archaeological excavations prior to new developments in The Liberties. Items from the Hiberno-Norse era, such as whorls, spindles, weights and bone needles have been found, together with evidence of a thriving cap and scarf/shawl industry in both wool and dyed, watered silk - an indication of ‘high status’ - being found.Above: Framed painting of Weaver's House in the Liberties by Rose Barton.The imposition of tariffs and taxes on the Dublin weavers eventually caused the slow decline of this tradition, but not before it re-invented itself into other related industries. The manufacture of poplin gave way to a significant upholstery industry, providing seating, padding and also lace for carriages, the mode of transport at the time. Later, with the coming of the motor-car, a thriving industry arose specialising in ladies and gents motor scarfs and mufflers. Frys of Cork Street also announced that it was possible to get the latest in bow-ties to finish the ensemble!Above: Horse-drawn Omnibus, Westmoreland Street, Dublin (circa 1865). Courtesy: National Library of Ireland (Original)Today, there is a renewed interest in this oldest of trades, with the Botany Weavers – the one remaining company near Dolphin’s Barn who operate from premises that once housed the City Woollen Mills and who are key suppliers to Aer Lingus and City Jet, recently announcing an expansion to its business, thus continuing a tradition of 1000 years of weaving in this area.Blog post by: Cathy Scuffil, Historian in Residence,Dublin South Central.
Last May, I was delighted to attend the Dublin launch of a book entitled 'Essays by an Irish Rebel: revolution, politics and culture' by Liam Ó Briain. A very enjoyable read, the book features twenty-five essays by the Dublin academic and revolutionary Liam Ó Briain (1888-1974), all of which were published in Irish from 1934 to 1968, as well as three appreciations of the author.All have now been edited and translated into English by Eoin Ó Dochartaigh, a retired doctor from Galway who graduated from University College Galway (now NUI Galway) and knew Ó Briain as a family friend.Above: Eoin Ó Dochartaigh speaking at the launch of his edited book 'Essays by an Irish Rebel: revolution, politics and culture', at the Mansion House in May 2019.The launch inspired me to read 'Insurrection Memories 1916', a complimentary volume described by historian Owen Dudley-Edwards as ‘a rich memory of a great man’. This personal account of the Easter Rising was first published in Irish in 1951 as 'Cuimhní Cinn'. In 2014 Fran O’Brien, the author’s grand-niece, translated the work into English and published it as a bilingual volume. Two years later, to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising, Ó Dochartaigh then brought out a new translation. Like 'Essays by an Irish Rebel', this was published by Ardcrú Books in Galway.Above: Undated postcard showing the entrance to St. Stephen's Green Park. Courtesy of Dublin City Library & Archive. [PCV04-90] Access over 40,000 images and postcards in the Dublin City Libraries and Archive Digital Repositary .'Insurrection Memories 1916' is an intimate account of what Liam Ó Briain observed while participating in the Easter Rising. The book begins in 1914, with Ó Briain returning to Ireland after spending three years studying on the continent (mostly Germany). Joining the Irish Volunteers, Ó Briain also became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood the following year and went on to take part in the Easter Rising. As a member of F. Company of the First Battalion of the Volunteers, Ó Briain had been scheduled to join the Four Courts garrison under the command of Ned Daly. However, after getting waylaid carrying out messages for Eoin MacNeill on the morning of Easter Monday, he found himself instead spontaneously joining the Stephen’s Green garrison with his friend Harry Nicholls.During the Rising Ó Briain impressed Captain Bob de Couer of the Irish Citizen Army enough to be promoted to the rank of Corporal. Afterwards he was among those imprisoned in Wandsworth Common prison in London until late June, and Frongoch Camp in North Wales until Christmas 1916 (which he later described as ‘the best university’ he ever attended). Ó Briain stood as a Sinn Fein candidate in Armagh during the 1918 General Election and was imprisoned in Galway during the War of Independence. A native of Dublin, he would go on to serve as Professor of Romance Languages at University College Galway from 1918 to 1959.Above: Photograph of the College of Surgeons taken after the Easter Rising to show 'where Countess Markievicz surrendered'. Courtesy of Dublin City Library & Archive. [BOR F34-18]Blog Post by: Dr. James Curry, Historian in Residence, North West Area.
When Dublin telephonists challenged the government
It is frequently claimed that the EU gave us equality, and certainly it has helped to have Equal Pay and Equal Treatment Directives, but it was frequently women workers who forced the government to implement the improvements in their employment conditions to which new legislation entitled them. If laborious industrial relations procedures did not deliver for them, the women were quite prepared to take to the streets to insist that they be treated fairly.In the 1970s the public telephone exchanges could provide jobs with steady, albeit low pay and the expectation of a pension if a woman stayed until retirement. As it was generally expected at the time that marriage and child-bearing would be a woman’s primary role in life, the poor terms and conditions were not a deterrent if one was only thinking of being in the job for a few years.In the early 1970s, pay discrimination between men and women was institutionalised in both the public and private sectors. The government introduced the Employment (Equal Pay) Bill in 1973 but claimed that they could not enact it because it would cost too much. They appealed the Equal Pay Directive that came from the EU in 1975 but were told that they would have to pass the Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act 1974, which the Minister for Finance had tried to defer until 1977. RTE’s Seven Days programme marked the introduction of equal pay with a report shown on 11 July 1975. They found that in the Civil Service and the Public Service the gap between male and female pay rates had actually increased, despite the Directive from the EU.The Post Office Workers’ Union (POWU) held an Equal Pay Telephonists Symposium in October 1976, which had its biggest ever attendance of female members. The largest delegation was from the Dublin Telephones section and the average age of the delegates was early to mid-20s. In March 1977 the POWU Executive gave authorisation for several two-day strikes in the Dublin Exchanges. Their intention was to draw maximum public attention to the way they were being treated without totally crippling the telephone service. By 1979, their claim had been recognised by the Labour Court but was still not implemented by the management.One of the notable aspects of the press coverage of the various industrial actions conducted by the telephonists was the involvement of journalists who reported extensively on the way the women were being treated. The journalists’ support elicited a lot of public sympathy for the telephonists because it meant that the unfairness of their treatment was revealed to people outside the exchanges. Irish Independent, 8.1.1979The Department of Posts & Telegraphs finally made the equal pay settlement in February 1979. There was a fairly widespread belief at the time that when a wider strike began within a week of that payment, that the Department did not expect the women to support their male colleagues in lower grades when they went on strike for a long overdue pay rise. That turned out to be a very wrong assessment. The telephonists went out en masse and remained out for the full nineteen weeks of the strike, although they had nothing to gain for themselves.Dublin Central Historian in Residence Dr. Mary Muldowney
History Document of the Month: Lepracaun Cartoon Collection
Britain faced similar issues ruling Ireland and India: both had to be held to maintain British international credibility and independence movements in both were driven in large part by religion. Irish nationalists drew parallels between their own struggle and that in India, particularly the brutality of colonialism. The above below, from the satirical newspaper, The Lepracaun, compares British rule in the two countries: executions and burning of homesteads in Ireland, while India saw the brutal practice of execution by cannon, particularly associated with the British suppression of the rebellion of 1857. The cartoon is pointing out the dark side of British rule: the ‘Upas Tree’ of the title refers to a highly poisonous tree common to Asia, while the figure of John Bull piously reading the common book of prayer while surrounded by bones, death and destruction is an unsubtle reference to the hypocrisy of evangelical imperialism. History Document of the MonthEvery month the Dublin City Council Historians in Residence will be highlighting a document from Dublin City Public Libraries and Archives Digital Repository. An image of the selected document will be on display in branch libraries during the month.Historians in Residence are available to meet groups and schools, give talks, walks etc, run history book clubs and advise on historical research.
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Séamus Ennis, the renowned musician, singer, folklorist and broadcaster who left behind, to quote from one obituary, “a priceless heritage of Irish tradition to the nation”. Inspired by on-going centenary events taking place across Dublin and at the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre, this blog briefly examines Ennis’s final years and death. (The bronze statue of Séamus Ennis which was unveiled in Naul on 24th October 2001. Courtesy of the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre)In 1975 Ennis settled in The Naul to live out his remaining years on land which had once belonged to his grandparents. A countryman at heart, he felt a strong attachment for the area and christened the plot where he lived in a caravan ‘Easter Snow’ (after the slow air of that name which he was fond of playing). He played an important role in helping to revive interest in uilleann piping during the twentieth century. While he continued to perform across Ireland and sometimes further afield, Ennis’s health gradually deteriorated during the period and he underwent an operation for cancer of the throat. An able cook who could deal expertly with game, as his health continued failing it was noticed that he began to lose interest in food.On the afternoon of Tuesday, 5th October 1982, Ennis passed away at home during his sleep. He was 63 years old. No inquest was held into the death, with the post-mortem examination taking place the following day. On Thursday evening Ennis’s remains were then brought from St. Vincent’s Hospital, Elm Park, to the Church of the Nativity in Naul, with friends and neighbours standing in the rain for almost an hour to greet the cortege, which had been delayed in heavy traffic.The following morning Ennis was buried in the adjoining Naul Cemetery. Leading traditional musicians had crowded inside the tiny Naul church alongside neighbours for the funeral Mass performed by local curate Father Malachy J. Mahon, who also officiated at the graveside ceremony. After the recital of a decade of the Rosary in Irish, broadcaster Séan Mac Réamoinn delivered a bilingual funeral oration in which he spoke of Ennis’s sincerity, prowess as a piper, and fidelity to north County Dublin and Ireland. This was followed by a lament – “Cois Abhainn na Séad” – played by Liam O’Flynn (Liam Óg Ó Floinn) on a set of uilleann pipes given to him by his deceased friend and mentor. (An uilleann piper at a Dublin Street Carnival in College Green, 1984. Available at;http://digital.libraries.dublincity.ie/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:42327)Since his death efforts have been made to keep Ennis’s memory alive. These include the renaming of a section of Jamestown Road (Finglas) in his honour in 1994, and unveiling of a bronze statue of Ennis with uilleann pipes in hand beside the newly opened Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre (now the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre) in Naul seven years later. On Friday 3rd May, a new Dublin City Council ‘Séamus Ennis Commemorative Plaque’ will be unveiled in Finglas at the site of Burgess Galvin & Co. Ltd., Jamestown Road.Dr. James Curry, Historian in Residence, North West Area.Dublin City Council Historians in Residence are available to meet groups and schools, give talks, walks etc, run history book clubs and advise on historical research.
This photograph (larger image below) from the Dublin City Library and Archive shows groups of women with their babies and young children outside St Monica’s Babies Club in St. Augustine Street, close to John’s Lane Church in the heart of Dublin’s Liberties. This club, - one of about 170 set up throughout Ireland - opened in 1909 and aimed to educate mothers in the overall care of their infants by holding classes and appropriate lecture series on the premises.(St Monica's Baby Club)St. Monica’s Babies Club had been established by the Women’s National Health Association (WHNA). This group was set up in Ireland in 1907 as part of the Irish International Exhibition, by Lady Aberdeen, wife of the Lord-Lieutenant who had a life-long interest in social and healthcare issues. The WNHA focused on finding ways to eradicate tuberculosis within the general population, - a primary cause of early deaths in the adult population - by coordinating pasteurised milk distribution, and opening a range of healthcare centres with the support of government. It also tried to address the social conditions and issues surrounding the extremely high infant mortality rates that existed in Ireland at the time.Catherine Scuffil, Historian in Residence, Dublin South Central.Dublin City Council Historians in Residence are available to meet groups and schools, give talks, walks etc, run history book clubs and advise on historical research.
This week I have had the great pleasure of visiting Massachusetts and presenting a paper at the annual national meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies held in Boston. It was my second time attending such a gathering, having also presented a paper on Dublin poet Maeve Cavanagh MacDowell two years ago, when ACIS met in Kansas City, Missouri. This time around I spoke about the life of Dora Maguire, another woman who happened to be profiled in R. M. Fox’s 1935 book of essays Rebel Irishwomen.Whereas the likes of Maud Gonne and Countess Markievicz became legends in their own lifetimes, Dora Maguire (1889-1931) was perhaps the most obscure of Fox’s dozen ‘Rebel Irishwomen’. A friend of the author, she died aged forty-one in February 1931 after years of ill-health. During my paper I spoke about Maguire’s upbringing in England and the north of Ireland, time spent in Blackburn and London during the First World War (when she worked as a nurse and developed suppressed diphtheria and tuberculosis), decision to move to Ireland around the time of the War of Independence, and employment at St. Ultan’s Children’s Hospital in Ranelagh during the 1920s.I then focused at length on her arrest in 1925 over an incident at the Princess Cinema in Rathmines. Evolving into an ardent republican during her adulthood, Maguire was indignant at the time about the screening across Dublin of short films concerning the Prince of Wales’ recent dominion tour of South Africa. Entering the “Prinner” – as the Princess Cinema was known to locals – on 6th August 1925 with an inkpot hidden on her person, Maguire stood up and hurled her makeshift missile over the heads of the theatre orchestra as soon as the offending picture was shown, causing considerable damage to the screen and generating newspaper headlines.Surviving foyer plaque from the Princess Cinema, the scene of Dora Maguire's arrest in August 1925. Known locally as "The Prinner", the cinema closed its doors in 1960 and was demolished in 1982 (Photograph courtesy of Carol Dunne, Dublin City Libraries).This incident is the focus of The Spirit of Dora Maguire, an historical comic strip by Dublin artist Aidan J Collins. Some artwork from this creation, which came about in 2018 following a talk I gave in Dublin on Maguire’s life the previous year, can be seen below:Blueprint still from an animated video by Aidan J Collins. This is based on one of the panels from his 2018 historical comic strip The Spirit of Dora Maguire (Courtesy of Aidan J Collins).On Monday 20th May 2019 I will be teaming up with Maeve Casserly (Historian in Residence, South East Area) for a joint talk about Dora Maguire and St. Ultan’s Children’s Hospital at Rathmines Public Library. The event starts at 6:30pm and all are welcome to attend.Dr. James Curry, Historian in Residence, North West Area.Dublin City Council Historians in Residence are available to meet groups and schools, give talks, walks etc, run history book clubs and advise on historical research.