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Last week’s blog showed that Catherine McCormack gave birth to a baby boy, Patrick, on the 31 May 1916. The birth record stated that James, the father, was deceased at the time of his birth. This week we are attempting to find out what happened to James Senior.

Welcome to our family history blog. In week two we looked at the 1911 census for James McCormack and his wife Catherine. This week we will be looking at the births registers trying to find a birth certificate for James their son and if we are lucky any other children they might have had. We start as usual by accessing www.irishgenealogy.ie

Welcome back, last week using the website www.irishgenealogy.ie we looked at how to find a marriage certificate. Our example was the marriage of James McCormack and Catherine Clarke who married in 1903. This week, staying with this couple, we are going to try tracing them on the 1911 census.

The Reading Room in Dublin City Library and Archive holds a wide variety of sources to help you find your ancestors.

Holiday Arrangements (incl. Public Holidays) vary. Dublin City Libraries closes for a number of days over the Christmas and Easter periods, and on St. Patrick's Day and bank/public holidays.

In partnership with Dublin City Libraries, Dublin City Council Culture Company launched Dublin’s first ever Historian-in-Residence for Children. This new Creative Residency will have children and history at its core and is an invitation to local children to work collaboratively, to uncover their own local history, create their own storytelling of that history, discover new passions and see their ideas and interests reflected in the work created.

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. 

Instrument Carousel - a partnership between Girls Rock Dublin and Dublin City Libraries was a smash hit with all the teenagers in Pearse Library on Culture Night last Friday. Instrument Carousel was an opportunity for participants to explore their musical potential.It marks the launch of the “GRD Gear Library”, the gear loan service designed for teenagers by Girls Rock Dublin & Dublin City Libraries. Sixteen teenagers took over the Library in a fun & loud experiment involving electric guitars, basses, synths, keyboards & drums. By moving through different rooms and engaging with GRD coaches, participants learned a song on each instrument, and finished by performing the song together.Girls Rock Dublin is a non-profit, volunteer-led organisation that builds girls’ self-esteem through music creation and performance. Providing workshops and technical training, GRD creates leadership opportunities, cultivates a supportive community of peers and mentors, and encourages social change and the development of life skills. ​From Culture Night any teenager who is a member of Dublin City Libraries can borrow their preferred instrument for three weeks. All you need is your library card!Teenagers will need the signature of a parent or guardian when completing the membership form. Their parent or guardian will need to bring photo I.D. and proof of address. Get access to great online resources, borrow books, DVDs and now musical instruments! There are no fines and you can use your card in any library in Ireland.    Joining is easy. Call into Pearse Street library and borrow what you like. The GRD Gear Library is a collection of  instruments, amplifiers and musical accessories that Girls Rock Dublin are now making available through Dublin City Libraries all year round.     The collection is made up of donated gear from people in the community who value the work of Girls Rock Dublin and from purchases made from funding received with thanks to ​Reverb.com​. GRD Gear Library also welcome donations of 'gear'.The library is an ongoing project, more pics from Culture Night 2019 on flickr. Dublin City Libraries are free,fun and easy to use. Find out more.       

It is impossible to say with any degree of certainty how many Irish took part in Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June, 1944. A precise figure for Irish enlistments in the British forces for the war as a whole is not available and estimates vary between 70–120,000 men and women.

In 1921, the Leinster Football Association separated from the parent body, the Irish Football Association (IFA), and subsequently formed the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). Soccer had been governed on an all-Ireland basis for 40 years beforehand. The split that happened in 1921 remains to this day, unlike most sports in Ireland that are still governed on a 32-county basis. Although football was divided the same year that Ireland was divided politically by the partition of the country, the primary reason for the split was an internal power struggle between Belfast and Dublin. The IFA, headquartered in Belfast, was believed by the football community in the south to be biased towards northern based teams. Most players selected for the Irish international team were from Ulster-based teams.Of the 48 international matches held in Ireland before the split, only six were held in Dublin, all the rest were hosted in Belfast. Most members of the IFA Council and its sub-committees were from the north also, and the allocation of funding favoured Ulster clubs over others.Left, an image of the Shelbourne team from 1914. The catalyst that led to the split involved one of Dublin’s oldest clubs, Shelbourne. After Shelbourne had drawn against Lurgan-club Glenavon in an Irish Cup semi-final tie in Belfast in 1921, it was almost universally believed that the replay would be held in Dublin.The IFA Protests and Appeals Committee ruled it was too unsafe for matches to be played in Dublin due to the prevailing conditions caused by the War of Independence, and Shelbourne was ordered back to Belfast for the replay.The club refused to do so and was removed from the competition.The action was roundly condemned by the Leinster Football Association and all associated with the game in Dublin. It was the spark that led to the division months later. Many attempts were made from 1921 to 1932 to re-unify the game in Dublin, all failing, leaving soccer in Ireland today divided, as it is politically, north and south.Blog post by: Cormac Moore, Historian in Residence, North Central Area.