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The Dublin and Irish Local Studies Collection is holding its 16th Local History Society Day on Saturday 21st March 2020. The event is being held in the Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street. This year's the event will run from 10.00am to 1.30pm. Four to five presentations will be hosted on the day. Any speakers who cannot be facilitated on the day will be invited to speak at the next Local History Society Day.The members of your group are invited to participate in Local History Society Day in the following ways:   By sending members to attend the event as delegates. Download forms here and email [email protected] or Tel: (01) 6744999   By putting forward a speaker from the group to present a paper on the day. Three to four speakers will talk on the day, each one presenting a short paper no longer than 35 minutes.   Proposals for a speaker and subject can be submitted on the forms above. Topics may include studies of local individuals, events or places, or any topic with a local history/heritage aspect. Proposals must be submitted by the 25th February 2020.If your group participated in Local History Society Day last year, we look forward to seeing you again, and if not, we hope you will take this opportunity to become involved. If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected] or Tel: (01) 6744999.As Secretaries and Chairpersons can change over time we would be very grateful if you could confirm that the details we have for your society are correct and up to date and would amend any details as required.Please follow the link to find details of the upcoming schedule for March 2020.   

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 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. 

The Soloheadbeg Ambush in January 1919 did not lead to a wide scale conflict immediately. For much of 1919, the Irish Volunteers embarked on a mainly defensive campaign, primarily searching for arms. As a result, some skirmishes broke out leading to some deaths.Isolated deaths of RIC men occurred in Limerick, Clare, Mayo and Tipperary. The shortage of arms was the main problem posed. Gun shops and private homes were raided for arms. In March 1919, all such premises were raided in the North-East of Dublin city.The most successful arms raid throughout the whole war occurred at Collinstown Aerodrome, present day site of Dublin Airport, on 20th March 1919. As the Aerodrome was heavily guarded by the British Military, according to Patrick Houlihan, a Volunteer and employee at the Aerodrome, the local Volunteers had to submit plans to the Irish Volunteers General Headquarters (GHQ) for approval. Once it was granted, two guard dogs at the Aerodrome were poisoned the afternoon before the raid, 19th March, calculated to kill them some hours later, to prevent an alarm being raised. That night the raiding party, numbering about 25, were dressed in khaki and masks, supplied by GHQ. Some volunteers engaged in disarming and tying up the sentries, 20 in number, whilst others collected all the arms and ammunition they could. The haul was transported away in two cars. To prevent a chase, over 20 cars in the military garage were demolished with sledgehammers. Acting in almost total silence to capture the sentries and sticking clearly to their well thought out plans, was key to the raid’s success.75 rifles and 5,000 rounds of ammunition were secured. There were no casualties nor prisoners taken. It was the largest loss of weapons by the British army from a single operation throughout the whole conflict. Many of the arms captured that day ended up in the IRA arms dump at the Naul in North Dublin. The British decided to punish the locals, a trend they would continue throughout the war, a foolish move which brought more and more support for the Volunteers. All 800 workers were sacked on the Collinstown site and replaced by military personnel. It was an act of collective punishment, recognised and resented as such. Cormac Moore, 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.

Last month I was in the King’s Inns building for the launch of a remarkable short film. Trish McAdams directed and wrote Confinement for the Grangegorman Development Agency, who asked her to create a public art project. The film’s 30-minute running time evokes three hundred years of the history of the King’s Inns, Henrietta Street and the Grangegorman Asylum. The story is told through the imagined voice of Tony Rudenko, an artist who lived in Henrietta Street until his death in 2014, who was also a friend of the director.(Poster for Dublin International Film Festival showing of Confinement)The film opens with animated maps of the Henrietta Street area in the early 18th century.  It tells how the beautiful houses in the street were built originally for the wealthy, eventually accommodating the poor, and recently seeing many of them currently undergoing restoration to former glory. This is a history well told by the Tenement Museum at 14 Henrietta Street.The King’s Inns was built with its back to Henrietta Street and its magnificent frontage facing in the direction of Grangegorman, which was at various times since the late 18th century the site of a workhouse, a prison and an asylum for the mentally ill.(The King’s Inns building seen from Constitution Hill)By the early 19th century, the workhouse and prison had been merged into the hospital, which was added to over the years until its peak in the early 20th century, when it had over 2,000 patients. During the cholera epidemic of 1832, the hospital was used to isolate patients and was referred to as the Dublin Cholera Hospital for the duration of the epidemic.(Surviving gate to the asylum buildings at Grangegorman)For the film, McAdams animated her own wonderful drawings that are based on actual photographs of the inmates of the asylum, contained in the inmate records.  The site is now part of the huge development in the Grangegorman area, which hosts the DIT campus of the new Technological University Dublin. Dr. 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. 

Gerald Crofts (1888–1934) was one of a small group of musicians and lyricists who made a huge contribution to the Irish independence movement in the early 20th century. He came from Capel Street originally, where his family had a shop and he was a popular singer. His brother Joseph was a composer who arranged the words and music for this marching song, which was dedicated to Crofts.Gerald had joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914 and he was a close friend of some of the leaders of the Rising. He was imprisoned in Dartmoor and Lewes prisons in England and suffered poor health for the rest of his life. Crofts continued his republican activities after his release from prison although he was curtailed in what he could do by a problem with his hands, which meant he could not hold weapons. Family papers suggest that he was involved in intelligence work with Michael Collins. In the later years of his life he was well known for singing his friend Constance Markiewicz’s anthem 'A Battle Hymn’ (dedicated to the Irish Citizen Army) at political gatherings and concerts. He died on 14th November 1934. 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.

Dublin supported James II at the Battle of the Boyne, but following his defeat by William III, a protestant ascendancy resumed control of the city and began to forge links with the new and successful monarchy.  This process intensified after the death of Mary II in 1695 left William III as sole monarch. Dublin Corporation added William’s arms to the City Sword  in 1697 and in the following year, the king presented a chain of office to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, carrying the monarch’s bust on a medallion, which is in use to this day.But these expressions of loyalty were not sufficiently public for the City Assembly, which early in 1700 decided to erect a statue of the king, to be placed on a pedestal in the old Corn Market.[1]   From the inception of this project, the Assembly was aware that the statue could become a focus for protest by Jacobite supporters, and decreed that it should “be defended with iron banisters”. [2]  Two Dublin merchants, Henry Glegg and John Moore, who were on business in London, were asked to commission the sculptor Grinling Gibbons to execute an equestrian statue of the king in copper or mixed metal and a contract was signed on 9 April 1700.[3] In fact, the statue was executed in lead.  Gibbons was to be paid £800 sterling in four instalments: £200 on signing the contract, the same again two months later, a further £200 when the statue was shipped off, and the final £200 when the statue had arrived and was in position.[4] The Assembly then decided that the statue should be placed, not in the Corn Market, but in a more prominent location, in College green. It was also agreed that the stones of St. Paul’s gate in the city walls, which had been demolished by alderman George Blackall, should be used to make a pedestal for the statue.[5]  The statue was unveiled on 1 July 1701, which was the 11th anniversary of the Boyne (following the Julian calendar in use at the time). The lord justices, who were guests of honour, were “entertained by publicly running out some wine” – presumably so they could have the fun of watching the populace scramble for a drink.[6]  The event became a yearly one, with a parade around the statue, and volleys of muskets fired in the air. Some security was afforded to the statue when the city    Plumber, Alexander Erwin, was paid £13-0s-9d for “fastening the iron work around the king’s statue”[7] and this afforded adequate protection to the monument for the best part of ten years. This honeymoon period ended in 1710. The City Assembly was informed that on Sunday 25 June “some persons disaffected to the late happy revolution, did offer great indignities to his late majesty, king William of glorious memory, by breaking and defacing some part of his statue erected on College Green”. [8] In fact, his sword and truncheon were broken off. The lord mayor, Sir John Eccles, believing that the attack was fuelled by drink, ordered that a “strict inquiry be made in the several public houses what guests were [there] at unseasonable hours” on the evening of 25 June.[9]  The authorities at Dublin castle offered £100 for information and the city offered a further reward of £50, which was claimed by a local man, Richard Markham.[10] The guilty parties were Trinity students who were expelled from the  college. But attacks on the statue continued. In October 1714 a truncheon, which was in the king’s hand, was broken off and removed and in 1715, the year of the first Jacobite revolt in Scotland, the Corporation decided to build a watch house beside the statue and post a couple of sentinels there.[11]Protestant sentiment continued in Dublin throughout the 18th century. The position of William III’s statue outside the Parliament House, made it a focus of the Volunteer rallies which took place in College Green in the 1770s.  The Lord Mayor’s Coach, which was commissioned by the Corporation and built in Dublin by William Whitton, was carved with unionist symbols, including orange lilies to honour William III.  The Coach was first unveiled on 4 November 1791, when it led a procession to mark the Birthday of William III – a procession which took place each year thereafter.  Equally, there was a Catholic reaction, and in 1798 the sword was removed and an attempt was made to saw off the kingly  head.   In 1805, supporters of Catholic Emancipation covered the horse with a mixture of tar and grease, while in 1837 the figure was blown completely off the horse. [12] It is said  that Surgeon-General Sir Richard Crampton, who was a tremendous snob, was at a dinner party in St. Stephen’s Green when a distraught man came to the door looking for him and saying: ‘You must come quickly Sir – a most distinguished gentleman has fallen off his horse in College Green!’   Whereupon Sir Richard rushed off – to find king William’s statue prone on the ground![13] On this occasion the statue was repaired by John Smyth, whose father was the more famous sculptor Edward Smyth.(Plinth of King William's Statue)The statue of William III continued to excite controversy well into the 19th century.  In 1842, city architect Hugh Byrne recommended that the cut stone base and iron railing around the statue were so defective that they should be removed and replaced and the finance committee was instructed to do so. [14]  In spite of these precautions, the statue continued to suffer physical attacks necessitating repairs, which were conscientiously carried out: in 1843 alone, such repairs cost the City Council more than £73.[15]    But after the Home Rule Party seized control of Dublin City Council in 1880, this careful attention was not applied to the city’s statues and in 1888 they were reported as being dirty, with William III’s statue also being dangerous. [16]   A report about the statue in the following year, found that it was indeed dangerous, with the horse in particular having sustained several cracks with a likelihood of it falling into the street and causing injury.  The City Engineer recommended that the statue should be repaired – at a modest cost of £35 – and that a new site should be found for it at Foster Place, away from traffic.[17] It was also suggested that a plaque should be added recording that the monument had been restored by the Corporation of Dublin during the Mayoralty of the Right Hon. Thomas Sexton.  However, although the repairs were carried out, the statue remained in College Green.  Even though the City Council members were largely nationalist, there was no suggestion that the statue should be removed altogether and a proposal from John Erskine of Belfast, offering to purchase it, met with the abrupt rejoinder ‘The Statue is not for sale’. [18][1] Anc. Rec. Dublin, VI, p. 232.[2] Ibid.[3] Surviving works by Gibbons in Ireland include a monument in St. Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin to Narcissus Marsh, archbishop of Armagh, and two in Kinsale, Co. Cork to the Southwell family.  See Edward McParland, ‘A monument by Grinling Gibbons’ in Irish Arts Review (Yearbook, 1994), pp 108-9.[4] Anc. Rec. Dublin, VI, p. 235.[5] Ibid., VI, pp 237, 239.[6] Anc. Rec. Dublin., VI, 248-9.  The lord justices were Henry Moore, 3rd earl of Drogheda; Narcissus Marsh, archbishop of Dublin; and Hugh Montgomery, 2nd earl of Mountalexander.  T.W. Moody, F.X. Martin, F.J. Byrne, A New History of Ireland, IX, (Oxford, 1984), p. 491.[7] Anc. Rec. Dublin, VI, 256. [8] Ibid. VI, pp 416-7.[9] Ibid., VI, pp 416-7.[10] DCA, MR/36: Dublin City Treasurer’s Account Book, 1651-1717, fol. 622b. Markham was paid £50 ‘for discovering the Persons that did Deface the Statue of King William’ but their names are not given.[11] Anc. Rec. Dublin VI, pp 540-1.  This pattern of attacks on the statue of William III lasted throughout its history. It was finally blown up by the old I.R.A. on 11 November 1928, the 10th anniversary of Armistice Day. Dublin City Council disposed of the shattered pedestal in 1929, as it was judged to be a hazard to traffic.[12] Cliona Cussen, ‘Public Sculpture: a cautionary tale, or Ni Neart go baint da cheile’ in Sculptors Society of Ireland, vol. 10, no. 4, 1989.[13] Frederick O’Dwyer, Lost Dublin, (Dublin, 1981), p. 27.[14] City Council manuscript minutes, vol. 11, pp 185-6.[15] Ibid., vol. 12, p. 146.[16] Dublin City Council minutes, 1888, item 180[17] Dublin Corporation Reports, 1889, vol. 3, pp 61-2.[18] Dublin City Council minutes, 1889, items 257, 281 

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. In November 1867 Marx wrote that what Ireland really required was ‘Self-government and independence from England, an agrarian revolution and protective tariffs against England’.To Marx, an independent Ireland would weaken British imperialism, cut off a valuable source of agricultural resources and dent London’s prestige, while an economically successful Irish state would mean an end to emigration across the Irish sea, thus removing the sectarian and social tensions which prevented the British working class from achieving revolutionary consciousness. In Capital and other works, Marx developed the idea that the British economic system was deliberately impoverishing Ireland, dispossessing workers and replacing them with livestock, turning Ireland into an agricultural satellite of Britain, its only purpose to grow food for British workers. At the same time, Marx believed the government wanted poor Irish workers to emigrate to Britain, to stimulate competition and antagonism within the working class and to distract them from turning on the establishment. Marx’ daughters were also strongly pro-Irish and wrote journal and newspaper articles condemning British policy and its treatment of Fenian prisoners in British jails.Engels had a deeper personal interest in Ireland. His long-time partner Mary Burns was an Irish emigrant whom he met in Manchester where he worked in his family-owned factory, and she opened his eyes to the conditions endured by Irish migrants to the city. Engels planned to write a history of Ireland, which essentially was a lengthy denunciation of British imperialism. Engels also visited Ireland twice, in 1859 and again in 1870. On his 1859 trip he landed in Dublin before travelling to Galway, Limerick, Tarbert, Tralee and Killarney. The country was still recovering from the Famine and Engels noted the amount of ruined and abandoned houses in the west. ‘The land is an utter desert’ he commented, ‘which nobody wants.’ He was unimpressed with Dublin, writing to Marx that the city had ‘the character of a small one-time capital, all English-built’ and that it bore ‘the same relation to London as Dusseldorf does to Berlin.’Both Marx and Engels realised that Ireland was not yet ready to embrace communism. Writing in 1888, Engels pointed out that ‘A purely socialist movement cannot be expected in Ireland for a considerable time. People there want first of all to become peasants owing a plot of land, and after they have achieved that, mortgages will appear on the scene and they will be ruined once more’: a prediction that held true in 2008 as well as 1888.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 advance of the Irish Theatre Archive moving to its new home in the planned new City Library at Parnell Square Cultural Quarter, Dublin City Archives are focusing on cataloguing their backlog of theatre collections. I began working as the theatre archivist in July of this year and the first collection I tackled was the Anna Manahan Papers. One of the most interesting incidents in her career was her performance of the lead role in the Irish premiere of The Rose Tattoo in 1957. The run proved to be a historic moment for Irish theatre and in Anna’s words sent her career “rocketing”.Anna Manahan was a Waterford born actor who performed on stage, film and television for over 60 years throughout Ireland, Europe, the USA and Australia. In the 1940s and 50s, before making a name for herself,  Manahan learned her craft touring the country with different theatre companies and freelancing at Dublin theatres.One such theatre Manahan performed in was the Pike Theatre, a tiny venue with only 35 seats located in Herbert Lane, Dublin. It was established in 1953 by husband and wife team Carolyn Swift and Alan Simpson and specialised in staging late night revues and the work of modern playwrights.One such playwright was Tennessee Williams and in May 1957 the Pike Theatre opened the inaugural Dublin International Theatre Festival with the European English-speaking premiere of his play The Rose Tattoo. The play follows the story of an Italian-American widow ‘Serafina’ who has withdrawn herself from society after her husband’s death and remains devoted to his memory, expecting her daughter to do the same.The rising young actor, Anna Manahan, was cast in the lead role of ‘Serafina’, playing the part of a grieving widow on stage. Just over a year earlier Manahan had performed this role in earnest. In April 1956, less than one year after marrying, Anna Manahan found herself a widow.  Her husband, Colm O’Kelly, died in Alexandria on 10 April 1956 after a brief illness. He and Manahan were on tour in Egypt with the Gate Theatre Company at the time. The night of his death Manahan went on stage in A Moon for the Misbegotten and dedicated her performance to him.The Rose Tattoo opened at the Pike Theatre on 12 May 1957 for a two week run. Manahan’s performance was praised in the press as displaying “acting ability on a more than ordinary level” and proclaiming “all are agreed on the brilliance of Anna Manahan’s acting”. However, as well as the critics, the play also drew the attention of An Garda Síochána.(Rose Tattoo Program)During The Rose Tattoo part of the stage direction calls for a condom, described in the stage direction as “a small cellophane-wrapped disk”, to fall out of an actor’s pocket on stage. For the Pike Theatre production this action was mimed. However, despite no condom actually being produced on stage, the director Alan Simpson was first threatened with arrest and then arrested and charged with “presenting for gain an indecent and profane performance”. On subsequent hearings one of the Detective Gardaí who attended the play refers to it as “indecent” and full of “illicit sex” while admitting that the stage direction calling for a condom to fall on stage was omitted from the performance.The arrest resulted in a planned run of performances at the Gate Theatre in the following weeks being cancelled. Members of the theatrical professions and other artists rallied round Simpson and the Pike Theatre and eventually the charges were dismissed.Speaking about the play in 2007 Manahan reflected on the impact the death of her husband had on her performance; “I suppose the deep sorrow I felt came out through the play. I felt a depth of emotion I had never felt before and I knew how to harness it.”Eilís McCarthy, September 2018.Note: The full collection list can be viewed here.

This fab exhibition, on display in Charleville Mall Library from 1 July  to 10 August, tells a multitude of Irish women’s stories during the First World War from Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses to munitions workers, home front volunteers, anti-enlistment activists and separation women. It draws on the archival records of the Royal Dublin Fusilers Association Archive and is curated by Dublin City Library and Archive and funded by Dublin City Council Decade of Commemoration.Speaking about the exhibition senior archivist Ellen Murphy said  "The role of Irish women in World War 1 is a story that is yet to be fully told. Against the backdrop of the campaign for female suffrage and the struggle for Irish Independence, this exhibition explores how the First World War impacted the lives of Irish women and greatly accelerated the changes which had been slowly taking place in society before the outbreak of war.