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The e-resource featured in this week’s blog is World Book Online. A suite of three websites from the publishers of the famous World Book encyclopedias. Supplying you with accurate information at age appropriate levels in a controlled safe learning environment.From pre-primary to secondary school – from the wobblers and toddlers to tweenies –  World Book provides fast and accurate information at every level in an immersive learning environment. The information is reliable, age-appropriate, and easy to read and comprehend.·         Early World of Learning for ages 3 to 6 years: this is a resource for preschoolers and children in early primary education. Developed with experts on early childhood education, it offers rich resources designed for the younger child.(An example of a webpage on World Book Online)·         Kids for ages 7 to 11 years: this is a premier reference website developed especially for young students. It features an intuitive user interface, thousands of easy-to-read articles packed with stunning illustrations, videos, interactive maps, and a wealth of engaging games and activities.(Example of the search function on World Book Online)·         Student for ages 12 to 15 years: this contains numerous tools to engage users in 21st-century education and blended-learning practices.(Further example of the search function on World Book Online)And best of all, it’s free with your Dublin City Public Libraries membership card.See World Book Online for more details.

As the world commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, it may come as some surprise to hear that both Marx and Fredrich Engels, authors of The Communist Manifesto and creators of modern-day Marxist thought, were both strong proponents of Irish independence.

Sometimes we forget that much of what we take for granted today was achieved by the struggle of people who fought against huge obstacles, whether it was in the national struggle for independence that we are commemorating in this decade of centenaries or in the striving to achieve decent working conditions, equality for all citizens and wide-ranging social justice. Despite the fact that women played a significant role in most of those struggles, too often the perception lingers that they were only the passive beneficiaries of men’s activities. One of the reasons for that misperception was the social policy that underpinned the institutionalisation of gender inequality, even after women gained access to the vote in 1918. In January 1919, the first Dáil adopted a Democratic Programme which was based on the republican and semi-socialist ideals of the pre-war years. It asserted that the nation’s sovereignty extended ‘to all men and women of the nation’ as well as to its material wealth; that the country should be ruled according to the principles of ‘Liberty, Equality and Justice for All’; that ‘every man and woman’ had a right to ‘an adequate share’ of the produce of the nation’s labour; that the ‘first duty’ of the Republic was to provide for the well-being of the children and it was a duty of the Republic to ‘safeguard the health of the people’. While that Democratic Programme was not the basis of the state that emerged from the War of Independence and the Civil War, many of the women who had been active in the struggle to establish that state still believed in the ideals that it represented.Portrait of members of the first DáilThe 1913 founding manifesto of the Irish Volunteers had conceded that ‘there will be work for the women to do’ but did not say what that work would be. Since all the founding documents and the rhetoric at inaugural meetings referred to Irish manhood it is hardly surprising that women who did not want to be in the Volunteers in a subsidiary capacity decided to create their own organisation and Cumann na mBan was set up in April 1914, albeit as an auxiliary body. They wore uniforms and participated in a number of activities that would prepare them for involvement in armed conflict, such as drilling and first aid, but not as combatants.The Irish Citizen Army was founded as a workers’ defence militia during the 1913 Lockout and women joined on an equal basis with men, although they also organised themselves into a women’s section. One of the key points of the constitution of the ICA was the demand that members must also join a trade union, if at all possible. The cause of women and the cause of labour was one of the main points of co-operation between middle and working class women in this period.  The release of applications made under the Military Service Pensions Acts in recent years sheds light on the breadth of activity undertaken by women in the course of the War of Independence and subsequently in the Civil War. Nevertheless, the Military Pensions Act 1924 made it extremely difficult for women to meet the criteria for a pension in its definition of eligibility:            In this Act the expression “military service” means active service in any rank, whether as an officer, non-commissioned officer, private or volunteer in any of the following forces, that is to say—“Oglaigh na hEireann” or the military body known as the “Irish Volunteers” or the military body known as the “Irish Citizen Army” or the body known as “Fianna Eireann” or the body known as the “Hibernian Rifles” or the “National Forces” or the “Defence Forces of Saorstát Eireann” or any branch of any of those forces.The language of the application forms assumed that the potential pensioner was male. When Margaret Skinnider - a member of the Irish Citizen Army who should have been eligible on several grounds, applied for a pension on foot of being shot on active duty during Easter Week 1916 she was refused on the grounds that the Act was only ‘applicable to soldiers as generally understood in the masculine sense’. She re-applied in 1937 following changes to the Acts and this time she was awarded an annual pension of £30, in respect of eight years’ pensionable service.The Military Service Pensions Act 1934 widened the criteria for inclusion:This Act applies to every person:who served in the Forces at any time during the week commencing on the 23rd day of April, 1916, or who served in the Forces continuously during either of the following periods, that is to say, the period commencing on the 1st day of April, 1920, and ending on the 31st day of March, 1921, and the period commencing on the 1st day of April, 1921, and ending on the 11th day of July, 1921, andwho served in the Forces at any time during the period commencing on the 1st day of July, 1922, and ending on the 30th day of September, 1923, andwho is not a person to whom the Act of 1924 applies.Cumann na mBan was now listed as a qualifying organisation but the types of activities covered by the Act still excluded many women. It was not until 1949 that the two acts were amended by widening the criteria to such an extent that military activity included running safe houses, intelligence work and delivering weapons, much of which had been undertaken by women.Portrait of members of Cumann na mBanDr. Mary Muldowney, Historian in Residence, Dublin City Library and Archive.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.

The 1966 Irish history syllabus for secondary schools was consistent with the focus of the 50th anniversary celebrations. It highlighted the role of advanced nationalists and downplayed and even deliberately obscured the role of individuals and groups who might possibly undermine the conservative hegemony of the Irish state. These included the organised labour movement and several women’s organisations, who were described essentially as auxiliaries to the independence struggle.Thankfully historiography has broadened in scope and there is general recognition now that the story of the Irish state is not simply one of emergence from the oppression of British rule. While there has been welcome attention paid to the women who were involved in various organisations during the revolutionary period, much less interest has been shown in the extent to which female solidarity cut across class lines and challenged social hierarchies, particularly in trade union circles. Many members of the Irish Women’s Franchise League, for instance, were also active in the 1913 Lockout and were also to play a critical role in the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence, with many of them on the anti-Treaty side in the Civil W Irish Citizen Army on parade at Liberty Hall, 1915 Far from simply supporting the separatist agenda, in the early years of the revolutionary period it is arguable that labour, particularly trade union forces had the most clearly laid out ideas for the shape of the state that would emerge from a successful revolution. James Connolly visualised a very clear strategy of attempting to unite all the most progressive forces in Ireland around their own revolutionary labour-based force, which was centred on the Irish Citizen Army, primarily in Dublin. As far as the organised labour movement was concerned, the revolutionary period can be divided into two phases: the first culminating in the Rising and its catastrophic casualties, as well as the symbolism of the destruction of Liberty Hall. The second phase saw a certain retrenchment behind industrial relations issues in the aftermath of the Rising, albeit with some notable exceptions. Despite the post-Rising caution of the Irish Trade Union Congress, between 1918 to 1922 there were no less than three national general strikes, called for political rather than industrial reasons.Consideration of the revolutionary period must also include the impact of the First World War. The Irish Trade Union Congress and Labour Party (ITUCLP) had an affiliated membership of 110,000 in 1914, mainly comprised of craft unions but including the general workers of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU). From its earliest stages, the Irish trade unions warned that the war would not be in the best interests of Irish workers. The National Executive of the ITUCLP frequently reminded Irish men and women of how the British Empire had treated them in the past.In the spring of 1918 the Irish trade unions played a prominent and crucial part in successfully opposing the introduction of conscription into Ireland. The ITUCLP made frequent representations to the British government in the course of the War of Independence, but they had lost the opportunity to lead their members politically when the Irish Labour Party opted not to contest the 1918 General Election, leaving the field free for nationalist forces that were frequently antagonistic to the best interests of the working class. Liberty Hall in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, 1916Dr. Mary Muldowney, Historian in Residence, Dublin City Library and Archive.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. 

On Friday 17 May 1918 the British government ordered the arrest and imprisonment of all leading members of Sinn Fein. They claimed they were involved in a plan to import arms from Germany. Among those arrested were Countess Markievicz, Eamon de Valera, Arthur Griffith and W.T. Cosgrave. They were quickly removed from Dublin and lodged in prisons across Wales and England. The arrests did dislocate Sinn Fein’s organisation but did not paralyse it; for example, Michael Collins was one of those who avoided capture.Following on from the conscription crisis in April 1918, the German Plot arrests provided another issue for the republican movement to rally around, particularly the injustice of the prisoners being held without charge.On the 27th of September 1918, Áine Ceannt presided over a protest meeting at the Mansion House. Addressing it in both Irish and English, Áine called for the government to release the prisoners at once. She was a founder member of Cumann na mBan, deeply involved in the Irish language movement and republican politics and was the widow of the executed 1916 leader Eamon Ceannt. The meeting was a remarkable cross-section of the nationalist movement and illustrated the continuing high profile of women in the politics of the time. Letters of support from the Bishop of Killaloe and Irish Parliamentary Party MP Timothy Healy were read out while William Smith O’Brien, Cathal O’Shannon, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Eoin MacNeill, Countess Josephine Plunkett, George Gavin Duffy, Muriel MacSwiney and Alderman Thomas Kelly were all in attendance.De Valera escaped from Richmond prison in February 1919 and the British government finally bowed to public pressure, releasing the remaining prisoners in March. By then, the war of independence had broken out and Ireland was gripped by the insurgency that the government had hoped to avoid by arresting the leaders in the first place. Bernard Kelly, Historian in Residence, Dublin City Library and Archive.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. 

We are delighted to announce that Cathy Scuffil, Historian in Residence with Dublin City Council (South Central area) has been awarded a silver medal by the Old Dublin Society for her paper on the South Circular Road on the eve of the First World War.  Professor Frank Barry from Trinity College Dublin presented the medal to Cathy on 21st June and praised her research which she undertook initially for an MA in Local History from Maynooth University.  Cathy brings her knowledge and love of history to groups and schools all over the Crumlin, Ballyfermot, Dolphin’s Barn, Walkinstown, Kimmage and Dublin 8 areas of the city. Some information about the Old Dublin Society medal:The Old Dublin Society was founded in 1934. Ten years later, the President at the time, Dr George Little, gave a silver medal for the best paper read by a member at one of the Society's meetings and published in 'The Dublin Historical Record'. This was known as 'The President's Medal' and this continued until Dr Little’s resignation in 1955. The Council then decided to continue awarding the medal, but calling it 'The Society's Medal'. Since 2016 articles submitted for publication by non-members of the Society are now eligible for the award as long as they feature original research on aspects of the history of the city and county of Dublin. The medal is now awarded for the best paper published in 'The Dublin Historical Record' in a calendar year, the winner being decided by majority vote of the Council.

Mellows bridge, situated towards the Heuston Station end of the quays, sits on the site of one of the oldest bridges in Dublin city. The original was built in 1688, was named Arran bridge and it collapsed in 1763. Its replacement, completed in 1768, was known as the Queen’s Bridge and has been renovated several times since. In the post-independence rush to rebrand structures with imperial connections, the Dublin Municipal Council renamed the bridge after Queen Maeve of Connacht in 1922. In 1942, the National Graves Association successfully petitioned to change the name to Mellows bridge, marking both the death of Barney Mellows in February 1942 and the 20th anniversary of the execution of his brother Liam. Born in Manchester in 1892, William Mellows was the son of a British army sergeant and his family moved to Ireland in the early 1900s. He attended the Hibernian Military School in Dublin but soon both Mellows brothers became heavily involved in the republican movement, starting with Na Fianna, before graduating to the Volunteers and the IRB. William soon abandoned his first name, choosing the more appropriately Gaelic Liam, and lead the Galway Volunteers during the 1916 Rising. After returning from the US in 1920, he chose the anti-Treaty side and was captured in the Four Courts in June 1922. While being held in Mountjoy Prison he was appointed Minister for Defence in de Valera’s shadow cabinet but was one of four prisoners executed in reprisal for the killing of TD Sean Hales in December 1922.   On 25 May 1942, following a procession from St Stephen’s Green, members of the National Graves Association and the Old Fianna Association assembled to hear a speech from Nora Connolly, daughter of James. Connolly pointedly remarked that Mellows’ vision of Irish independence was freedom from ‘foreign oppression and domestic exploitation’. A plaque was also unveiled on the bridge, dedicated to ‘Liet-General Liam Mellows’, reflecting his high status in the republican movement. Mellows bridge remains the oldest bridge over the Liffey and commemorates one of the most fascinating characters of the revolutionary period in Ireland.Bernard Kelly, Historian in Residence, Dublin City Library and Archive.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.

In the run-up to the referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment in May 2018, a mural appeared near the George Bernard Shaw pub in Portobello, Dublin. The mural by Aches graffiti artists depicted Savita Halappanavar who died in Galway University Hospital in October 2012 following a septic miscarriage. Dublin City Library and Archive photographed some of the messages that were left at the Memorial Wall so that a record of these transient notes might be preserved for future scholars and historians on what was a transformative event in Irish social history.

The following political cartoons come from the United Ireland and the Weekly Freeman and the National Press, Irish nationalist newspapers that commented on the last few decades of nineteenth-century Ireland. These cartoons illustrate Irish nationalist sentiments at the time by commenting on political events and figures, in particular the Home Rule Movement, the Land War, and the 1892 General Election.

Despite declaring neutrality when the conflict broke out in September 1939, Ireland came under aerial attack several times during the Second World War. Most of the incidents happened in 1940-41, while the Luftwaffe was attacking British cities and trying to degrade their air defences. In August 1940, three people were killed by German bombs in Campile, County Wexford, while more fell in Sandycove, County Dublin in December of the same year.