Last week we looked at the death certificate for James McCormack and discovered that there was a discrepancy in his age. His death certificate stated that he was forty years of age in 1916 whereas five years earlier the 1911 census records his age as thirty years, which means that he would have been thirty five at the time of his death.
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
Brighter Days Ahead: Irish Sailors Merchant Shipmen, a Memorial
November the month of the Holy Souls is a month of commemorations and remembrances of all our dead and in particular our war dead. Remembrance Day on the eleventh of November or Poppy day as it is sometimes called grew out of recognition of Armistice Day. The celebration of Armistice Day, traditionally a British reserve has spread worldwide and is referred to as Remembrance Day or Veterans Day depending on where you are.
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.
When you look at the Dublin mountains that form a ring around the south of the city, have you ever noticed one hill – Montpelier Hill - that seems to have a house or some sort of building on the top of it?
Many of Dublin’s most striking buildings tell us stories about the past, not least in how travel into and around the city has changed over the years. If you are taking the Luas to the Technical University Dublin (TU Dublin) campus at Grangegorman, you can alight at the Broadstone stop.From the platform level you can just about see the upper level of Broadstone Station, which is obscured by a high concrete wall but if you walk just a little way down Constitution Hill, turn right and climb the hill (over what was once an aqueduct) towards Grangegorman, you can see the front façade of Broadstone Station. Its history is a reminder of how the purpose of workplaces can change as part of a wider process of industrialisation and accompanying technological development.The building was designed by one of Ireland's most illustrious 19th century architects, John Skipton Mulvaney (1813-1870) and it was originally the terminus of the Midland and Great Western Railway (M&GWR). The main building was completed in 1847, on a site previously known as Broadstone Harbour. This had been the terminus of the Royal Canal and an important transport hub in its turn, before the canal was extended further into the city in 1874-75, with the building of Spencer Dock at North Wall Quay.Undated map of Broadstone vicinity and the Royal Canal (Wide Streets Commission general maps collection, 1681-1851). Dublin City Library and Archives.As transatlantic passenger traffic increased in the second half of the 19th century, there was a plan to make Galway the main port for transatlantic passenger traffic between Europe and North America. The M&GWR competed successfully with the Great Southern Railway to be the first to bring passengers from Dublin and the Eastern seaboard to Galway and the line opened in 1851. From the other direction, the M&GWR provided a special fourth class for poor migrants from the west of Ireland going to Britain for work. The line, which branched out to serve Sligo, Westport, Achill and Clifden, was also used to transport huge numbers of cattle. Such was the demand for rail transport, from 1872 the M&GWR began building its own locomotives at Broadstone at a part of the site that is now occupied by the Dublin Bus Depot.Like the Broadstone Harbour before it, the Broadstone Station fell victim to another transport revolution in the 1930s. The golden age of Irish railways was drawing to a close, road transport was taking over and lines were being closed. At midnight on 16 January 1937, the night mail from Westport was the last train to arrive at Broadstone. Broadstone Station was closed to the public later that year.The building now serves as the administrative centre for Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus and is not open to the general public. However, it is possible to see a virtual view of the interior. The Luas Broadstone stop is very different in scale but has its own distinctive appeal, which will soon be enhanced by the creation of a plaza looking up towards the old station on the hill. With the opening of the next phase of TU Dublin planned for September 2020 (Covid19 permitting) Broadstone will once again be a vital transport focal point.Want to spend this ‘Stay At Home’ time reading, or even studying more history? Why not try out some of Dublin City Libraries history resources, you can use them with your library card and everything is free:BorrowBox has lots of history books including historical novels, non-fiction tomes and history audio books.RBDigital app has history magazines like BBC History, Military History and the genealogy magazine Who Do You Think You Are. Browse and download over 43,000 old photographs, maps and documents and thousands of old photographs, maps and historical documents available free-of-charge on our digital repository and image galleries.Find out the history and provenance of Dublin place names and monuments with the Historians in Residence live Facebook talks (https://www.facebook.com/DubHistorians) and online video lectures. On the library blog you can read the historians’ quick reads on topical subjects like the flu pandemic of 100 years ago, Molly Malone (did she really die of a fever?), when Dublin Telephonists challenged the government, and lots more.Read the book of local history essays written by Dublin City Council’s Historians in Residence History on Your Doorstep Volume 1. Dublin City Council’s history on your doorstep programme brings this history & heritage to life.There are 30 online history courses on Universal Class complete with assignments and a tutor, including the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, Ancient Civilisations, and economic history.Keep in touch by following us on twitter at @histfest @dubhistoriansMary Muldowney, Historian in Residence Dublin City Council, Central Area
In May 1920, Erskine Childers published a booklet entitled Military Rule in Ireland, which was a collected edition of eight articles he contributed to The Daily News paper between March and May of that year. He added some explanatory notes and an additional chapter but essentially the booklet reproduced the articles as they had originally appeared, describing the terrible pressures on the citizens of Dublin as a consequence of the manner in which the British forces were running the country.He explained that he had been asked to give his opinion of the military regime as one who lived in the country and was also a soldier. Of course, he was also a well-known writer but he did not mention that in his articles. Lead photo - Four Courts Hotel in the 1960s (Dublin City Library and Archives).This is Childers’ description of a “typical night”, published on 29th March 1920:As the citizens go to bed, the barracks spring to life. Lorries, tanks, and armoured searchlight cars, muster in fleets, lists of “objectives” are distributed, and, when the midnight curfew order has emptied the streets – pitch dark streets – the weird cavalcades issue forth to the attack. Think of raiding a private house at dead of night in a tank, whose weird rumble and roar can be heard miles away! The procedure of the raid is in keeping, though the objectives are held for the most part by women and terrified children. A thunder of knocks: no time to dress (even for a woman alone) or the door will crash in. On opening, in charge the soldiers – literally charge – with fixed bayonets and in full war kit. No warrant shown on entering, no apology on leaving, if, as in nine cases out of ten, suspicions prove to be groundless and the raid a mistake.Just two months later, on 25 May 1920, an Evening Herald report about soldiers operating in the Arran Quay area of the city shows that the behaviour described by Erskine Childers was indeed typical of the British military regime. Residents of Lower Bridge Street, Church Street and the “adjoining thoroughfares” were very alarmed when multiple shots were fired by soldiers, said to be enforcing the curfew in the city (imposed from 12 midnight).Several people who were returning to their homes before the curfew reported being stopped by a party of soldiers, who appeared to be searching for someone. The residents were frightened by the sound of more shots being fired “from the direction of the Four Courts”. Later, at about one o’clock in the morning and again at 3 and 4 a.m. armoured cars and motor wagons visited Lower Bridge Street but no arrests were made. Picture opposite - Front cover of Military Rule in Ireland (Dublin City Library and Archives)Mrs. Cushen, the manageress of a boarding house at 169 Church Street was trying to get her baby to sleep at about 11.45 pm when she heard a shot. She heard footsteps in the street and her hall door being forced open. She ran downstairs in her nightdress and met a number of armed soldiers, who had fixed bayonets on their rifles. They claimed that shots fired at them had come from her house, which she denied. They spent about an hour searching the house but found nothing. They then went across the street to an empty house, broke the door and windows with their rifles but again found nothing. A man living on Church Street was chased by soldiers while he was on his way home and had to take shelter in the Four Courts Hotel for the night.The Evening Herald report went on to say that the police denied that anything out of the ordinary had happened and insisted that the soldiers were only carrying out the curfew regulations.Want to spend this ‘Stay At Home’ time reading, or even studying more history? Why not try out some of Dublin City Libraries history resources, you can use them with your library card and everything is free:BorrowBox has lots of history books including historical novels, non-fiction tomes and history audio books.RBDigital app has history magazines like BBC History, Military History and the genealogy magazine Who Do You Think You Are. Browse and download over 43,000 old photographs, maps and documents and thousands of old photographs, maps and historical documents available free-of-charge on our digital repository and image galleries.Find out the history and provenance of Dublin place names and monuments with the Historians in Residence live Facebook talks (https://www.facebook.com/DubHistorians) and online video lectures. On the library blog you can read the historians’ quick reads on topical subjects like the flu pandemic of 100 years ago, Molly Malone (did she really die of a fever?), when Dublin Telephonists challenged the government, and lots more.Read the book of local history essays written by Dublin City Council’s Historians in Residence History on Your Doorstep Volume 1. Dublin City Council’s history on your doorstep programme brings this history & heritage to life.There are 30 online history courses on Universal Class complete with assignments and a tutor, including the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, Ancient Civilisations, and economic history.Keep in touch by following us on twitter at @histfest @dubhistoriansMary Muldowney, Historian in Residence Dublin City Council, Central Area
The general strike as a political weapon was used very effectively in Ireland on several occasions between 1918 to 1922. It was part of the successful resistance to the imposition of conscription in April 1918. One hundred years ago, on 12 April 1920, worked ceased all over the country, but especially in Dublin, as another general strike was called.Several thousand republicans had been imprisoned in previous months, as part of the British government’s response to events in the War of Independence. Over one hundred political prisoners were in Mountjoy Gaol in April 1920, when many of them decided to go on hunger strike in protest against the absence of formal charges against them. They were also angry that the authorities were breaching an agreement to treat them as prisoners-of-war rather than criminals.At Mountjoy Gaol tens of thousands of people demonstrated outside for the release of the republican prisoners. Women were especially prominent in the demonstrations, many of them on their knees and praying for the hunger strikers. British army soldiers were posted behind the walls of the gaol, which were covered with barbed wire to prevent any attempt to break in and release the prisoners. Soldiers were standing with bayonets fixed while Royal Air Force planes flew towards the crowd at rooftop height, to intimidate them.The Irish trade unions - led by the Irish Transport and General Workers Union - organised a general strike in support of the hunger strikers and all the political prisoners. In many areas the strike committees took over the organisation of civic duties like food distribution and policing. After two days of general strike, on 12 and 13 April, the British authorities caved in and released all the republican prisoners. It was an effective demonstration of the general strike’s use as a political weapon.Sometimes economic and political demands could be mixed. On 17 April the dockers at the North Wall refused to load food for England. This action relieved the scarcity in Dublin, which was particularly bad in these years when large quantities were being shipped to Britain under the food control orders. In May 1920, railway workers began refusing to move British troops or military supplies in Ireland, restricting the military to the use of roads, which were constantly being trenched and blocked by IRA guerrillas. The boycott lasted until the end of the year, when the men were instructed to finish it to stave off the danger of retaliation by the state.Want to spend this ‘Stay At Home’ time reading, or even studying more history? Why not try out some of Dublin City Libraries history resources, you can use them with your library card and everything is free:BorrowBox has lots of history books including historical novels, non-fiction tomes and history audio books.RBDigital app has history magazines like BBC History, Military History and the genealogy magazine Who Do You Think You Are. Browse and download over 43,000 old photographs, maps and documents and thousands of old photographs, maps and historical documents available free-of-charge on our digital repository and image galleries.Find out the history and provenance of Dublin place names and monuments with the Historians in Residence live Facebook talks (https://www.facebook.com/DubHistorians) and online video lectures. On the library blog you can read the historians’ quick reads on topical subjects like the flu pandemic of 100 years ago, Molly Malone (did she really die of a fever?), when Dublin Telephonists challenged the government, and lots more.Read the book of local history essays written by Dublin City Council’s Historians in Residence History on Your Doorstep Volume 1. Dublin City Council’s history on your doorstep programme brings this history & heritage to life.There are 30 online history courses on Universal Class complete with assignments and a tutor, including the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, Ancient Civilisations, and economic history.Keep in touch by following us on twitter at @histfest @dubhistoriansMary Muldowney, Historian in Residence Dublin City Council, Central Area
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.
