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The archives of Kevin Street Library were accessioned by Dublin City Library and Archive in 2012. It is an important collection for exploring the history of Dublin Public Libraries, Cumann na Leabharlann, and also includes materials relating to the 1916 Rising and the Emergency Period in Ireland. The collection has recently been catalogued, with part-funding provided by Dublin City Council Decade of Commemoration Fund.  The Kevin Street Library archives can now be accessed by members of the public in the Reading Room of Dublin City Library and Archive.Kevin Street Library ArchiveOpened in 1904, Kevin Street Library was built after Dublin Corporation was encouraged to buy a plot of land on the street. With John Whelan as its first chief librarian, it is an example of the trend to provide free access to books to the citizens of the city. This collection contains material on a schools scheme, which provided free books to schoolchildren and material from the Dublin Technical Schools, both showing how the libraries resources were used to provide better access to reading materials for the citizens of Dublin. The library also subscribed to magazines which covered many different areas of interest from motors, travel and economics as well as Irish interests with Irish Monthly and An T-Oglach available to read. What the collection also tells us is the difficulties that the library encountered in its early years. Railway strikes meant that coal could not be delivered to heat the library. The outbreak of the First World War meant a reduction in reading material due to paper shortages. The library had to adapt to different functions due to outside factors including displaying pamphlets sent from London which encouraged men to join the war in Europe. The Soldiers and Sailors Family Association also had weekly meetings in the library throughout the duration of the conflict. The Irish Civil War also forced the library to adapt a new role when it was asked to be an aid dispensary due to the Peter Street Dispensary being occupied by soldiers. While providing us with an insight to the running of a public library in the early twentieth century, this collection also offers an insight into how the difficult political landscape at the time affected the library and the people who used it.Easter RisingWhile most of the Easter Rising material in this collection is made up of letters sent by members of the public, explaining how the rising prevented them from returning books they loaned, they give an insight into how the rising affected people's routines and lives. A letter from a Mr T.L. Townshend for example, asks the library to reprieve a woman of paying a fine for a late book due to the book being destroyed along with her house during the conflict. Another letter from a former employee of the library was written to notify the library of the death of her husband, who was killed in the Custom House during the events. A letter sent by Eamon O’Duibhir is of significance as it was sent from Reading Prison, a prison that was used to hold many who took part in the rising. The letter mentions that Henry Dixon was also imprisoned there. Dixon along with John Whelan was central to the foundation of Cumann na Leabharlann, the Irish Library Association. Dixon had been a campaigner for Irish industry and culture from the 1880s onwards and was involved in many republican organisations set up to preserve Irish traditions.Cumann na LeabharlannCumann na Leabharlann, or the Irish Library Association in English, was established in 1904 The collection contains the constitution and rules of the association, of which the first objective was to promote the establishment of public libraries and reading rooms. Thomas W. Lyster, who was Vice President of the association and also Director of the National Library of Ireland, originally voiced his concerns in a letter from February 1900 that the time wasn’t right for such an association to be set up but that he strongly believed that such an association should be set up eventually and recommended that the constitutions of the American Library Association and the Library Association of the UK be looked at as templates for the proposed constitution for the Irish Library Association. Lyster is later named as being a Vice-President of Cumann na Leabharlann. A letter written by author John DeCourcy MacDonnell is also included in the collection where he voices his approval of such an association being set up. With the Public Libraries (Ireland) Act of 1902 allowing rural districts to set up public libraries, Cumann na Leabharlann played an important role in making this happen. Letters from around Ireland are included in the collection that highlight the difficulties but also the successes of setting up these public libraries across the country. An Leabharlann, which was the association’s journal was also central to the aims of the association with a cover of the first edition included in the collection. View a small sample of documents from the Kevin Street Library Collection on flickr. The FutureDublin City Public Libraries announced in 2013 the commencement of works to refurbish Kevin Street Library. As highlighted through the archives, Library services have seen enormous change over the years. Kevin Street Library is in need of refurbishment works to accommodate the requirements of a public library beyond those envisaged when the building first opened in 1904. View more information about Kevin Street Library refurbishment project.About Guest bloggerKevin Healion is an archivist with Eneclann.

'A Poet in Bits' was a poetry reading by Ronan Brown at Pearse Street Library on 19th August 2015.Ronan Brown was born in Manchester and grew up in Dalkey in the 50s and 60s. He worked as a chartered surveyor but has been writing poetry since the 1970s. Browne was a former member of 'Chapter and Verse', the writers' group which met in the Killiney Court Hotel. His work has been published in anthologies.Part of Pearse Street Library's Speaking Words Series.

Poetry reading by Australian poet, Ross Donlon at Pearse Street Library on 13th May 2015.Ross Donlon lives in Castlemaine in Australia. His poems have been widely published in Australia and Ireland. The Blue Dressing Gown was published in 2011 by Profile Poetry. Tightrope Horizon (Five Islands Press) was published in 2003. Shh and Other Love Poems and My Ship were published  by Mark Time Books in 2009. Shh has been anthologised in Poems for All Occasions and elsewhere. In 2014 Ross published Awakening: Poems from the collection of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Light Travelling: a sampler of new and collected poems. His latest book is Sjøvegan (The Sea Road).In 2009 Ross was awarded the Varuna Writers' House Dorothy Hewett Flagship Fellowship for Poetry, and in 2010 he was awarded the Wenlock Festival Poetry Prize at the Arvon International Poetry Competition by chief judge, Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.Part of Pearse Street Library's Speaking Words Series.You can listen to Ross reading his poetry here (playing time: 14:09 mins):

Over Easter weekend we tweeted quotes from Monica Roberts' 1916 Diary, which provides a unique eyewitness account of the Rising including details of how it impacted on daily life (view tweets below).  Monica Roberts was a young woman living in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin. She set up a voluntary organization, ‘The Band of Helpers to the Soldiers’ to provide gifts for Irish troops at the front, particularly those serving with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Royal Flying Corps. The Monica Roberts Collection is fully digitised and searchable online at Digital Repository Ireland

On Wednesday, 27th May 2015, Dublin City Council's Public Library Service took possession of a copy of a rare eye-witness account of the outbreak of the 1916 Easter Rising. The account was in the form of a letter written by Elsie McDermid (seen on the right), a popular opera singer of the era, to her mother in England on the occasion of Elsie's visit to Dublin. She was in Dublin to perform in Gilbert and Sullivan shows at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. However, the performances were cancelled as a result of the dramatic outbreak of the Easter Rising on Monday 24th April 1916. Elsie wrote a 26-page letter and in it she related, among other things, the digging of trenches in St Stephen’s Green and eye-witness accounts of the first casualties on the streets of Dublin.Visit the 'Elsie McDermid Letter' Image Gallery or view PDF version below.The letter, which includes Elsie’s hand-drawn maps of Dublin during the Rising, now forms part of a personal 1916 archive owned by Elsie’s nephew Colin McDermid.Colin visited Dublin in May 2015 and donated a digital copy of the letter to Dublin City Public Libraries. The copy formed an important part of the 'Citizens in Conflict: Dublin 1916' exhibition at Dublin City Public Library and Archive, Pearse Street (January to mid-June 2016). We are delighted to say also that the letter and related material is now available online (follow Image Gallery link above). Read more about the donation of the letter at the Mansion House on the 27th May 2015.The letter begins “We are living in stirring times. I am writing this to be posted if there is any post office left and will keep it till I know it will go.” Elsie McDermid kept the letter and other souvenirs of 1916, including shell casings and postcards, which her family preserved. The letter has never been published in historical accounts of the Rising but it and the other items in Elsie’s 1916 archive featured on the BBC's 'Antiques Roadshow' in the Spring of 2015.Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive would like to extend a sincere thanks and its appreciation to Colin for the donation.Elsie McDermid made her stage debut in Covent Garden in 1914 and had a London stage career well into the 1920s. She performed leading roles in many Gilbert and Sullivan classics including ‘The Pirates of Penzance’, ‘The Mikado’ and ‘The Gondoliers’. She also performed roles in Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ and Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’. Born in Middlesbrough in 1889, she died in Eston, North Yorkshire, in 1933.Visit the 'Elsie McDermid Letter' Image Gallery or view PDF version below. The Elsie McDermid 1916 Letter - Usage StatementOwnership of the Elsie McDermid Letter resides with Colin McDermid. Colin has very kindly granted Dublin City Council rights to reproduce the letter here.Personal Use:Printing or downloading of the letter (text, images) is permitted on a temporary, non-commercial basis for personal use only.Commercial Use and Reproduction:Those wishing to  use the content of the Elsie McDermid Letter (text, images) for commercial purposes or to publish* the content should contact Dublin City Public Libraries ([email protected]) for permission. When applying please state which content is being used and give the precise details of the type of use planned – exhibition, book, magazine, newspaper, performance or other. Conditions to apply.*Includes website or other electronic means.

Jacob's Biscuit Factory on Bishop Street was one of the sites occupied by the Irish Volunteers during Easter Week, 1916, and has acquired iconic status within Irish history.   The Jacob's Biscuit Factory Archive has recently being catalogued and opened to public access in the Dublin City Library and Archive.  In conjunction with the Business Information Centre the exhibition "W&R Jacob and Easter Rising" will be open to the public from 13 April, with a talk by Dr Séamas Ó Maithiú on 21 April.Right: Sketch of Bishop Street Factory, c.1900s, Jacobs Biscuit Factory Archive (DCLA) (View larger image)Whilst researching how factory workers both participated in and were affected by the Rising in different ways, our guest blogger and Dublin City Archives intern Saffron East was enthralled by the dramatic witness account written by 35 year old  William George Smith,  an Assistant Manager at the factory,  which can be  accessed in the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Ireland.:Jacob’s Biscuit Factory, St John Ambulance and 1916During Easter Week, many civilians were caught in the crossfire between the rebels and the British Army. St John Ambulance was an important organisation during the Rising, as it worked to organise emergency hospitals and medical care for civilian casualties across the city. William George Smith was a key member of the W&R Jacob Ambulance and Nursing Division of St John Ambulance and he kept an account of his personal experiences of Easter Week, which can be accessed in the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Ireland, and tells us the story of how the Rising impacted this extraordinary Dubliner.Left: Portrait photo of William G. Smyth, Jacobs Biscuit Factory Archive (DCLA) (click to view larger image)Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, began as an ordinary day for William Smith, as he took his sons on the tram to spend some time in Merrion Square during their Easter holidays. On the tram, Smith writes that they overheard other passengers speaking of 'trouble in Dublin and that the Sinn Fein volunteers were causing commotion.' Smith enquired with the tram driver, who did not know much as the trams had not been allowed into the city centre, but said that 'he heard the Volunteers were rising.' Smith and his boys 'thought that it was probably only an ordinary riot which the police would soon quell' so continued their journey. Further disruption to the trams meant that the family had to walk home in the afternoon, where they ran into a friend of Smith's: a Four Courts officer of the St John's Ambulance Brigade, who explained 'that the Sinn Feiners had risen in rebellion and had captured Dublin Castle, the GPO, Four Courts, Boland's hill and some other places.'The next day, Smith decided to cycle into the city to investigate. He travelled via Peter Street, where he saw Jacob's Biscuit Factory. He describes that 'everything there seemed peaceful in fact, unnaturally so for the street was deserted.' Smith cycled around the city, finding 'a large crowd assembled' near Redmond's Hill, and 'saw the windows of the General Office broken and filled with flour bags, behind which were men with rifles.' He described: 'The crowd seemed not generally to be showing much sympathy with the rebels, or were taking it rather as a joke.' Smith cycled to St Stephen's Green, finding the rebels 'digging trenches and barricading the place. Many of them were mere boys; in fact only about one in ten was a man; they had a great many young girls, ranging from about 13 to 20...'  On this Tuesday, William Smith witnessed his first casualty of the Rising, as he saw a civilian man shot by the rebels. He wrote that this 'was certainly a shock, because it was such a cold blooded affair to shoot down in this way an old unarmed civilian, and for a few minutes I felt decidedly upset.' Smith wrote that, later that day, 'one could hear the curious tap-tap of the machine guns, a sinister sound which one could never get wholly used to.'On Wednesday, Smith began working on organising extra help within Dublin's hospitals, and creating emergency hospitals in new locations around the city. He also helped in the creation of an emergency ambulance service, where men travelled with stretchers to bring in wounded civilians. This was dangerous work, and many of these St John’s Ambulance volunteers were wounded or killed in the crossfire. Smith recalled that he would 'never forget the dreadful wounds we had to look after that night... The constant rattle of rifle fire, the sound of bombs exploding.'Above: W& R Jacob  Ambulance and Nursing Division, including Smyth (undated).  Jacobs Biscuit Factory Archive (DCLA) (click to view larger image)Smith wrote that Thursday 'was the most miserable day I ever spent.' As well as organising ambulances, Smith arranged for moving wounded patients to different hospitals, as they were all overcrowded. On patrol for wounded civilians, Smith found that Mount Street was 'a very "hot spot" indeed... sufficient to say that for many days this district was a regular death trap to its inhabitants.' That afternoon, Smith opened a new hospital in a school, and had to beg the local hotels for bedding and furniture supplies. Friends provided food for this hospital, so the patients would not starve. This hospital became Smith's base for the rest of the rising. Smith wrote that he 'lost all count of time... It is difficult to recollect all the things one did during that dreadful time and the strange things one came across.' Smith witnessed many people 'digging graves to bury the dead, as they could not be disposed of otherwise.' He wrote that 'Stephen's Green had some dead buried in very shallow grave, for I saw in one case boots sticking out of the soil' and that 'one doctor whom I knew had to bury an officer in his back garden, whose name he did not know and who had nothing on him by which he could be identified'.Smith wrote of a near-disaster: 'the rebels got wind of our taking patients and the rumour spread amongst them that all patients were to be taken out of the hospital and the military were then to occupy it and attack the [Jacob’s Biscuit] factory from that point. This they resolved to stop and brought up a machine gun... and were about to fire when MacDonagh, one of their leaders, came up and protested and finally they took a vote on the question and by a few votes decided not to fire and afterwards found out the truth of the matter.'He also recounted the bravery of his peers, including one of his ambulance drivers who 'was shot through the thigh whilst driving a car full of wounded past the Four Courts, but he drove on until he reached the Castle Hospital, when he fell off his seat.'William George Smith's account includes many more anecdotal stories of his experience of the Easter Rising. He writes of the resilience and bravery of many Dubliners who pulled together to make the limited hospital supplies work as best they could, and travelled around the city collecting the wounded despite the dangerous conditions.The first ambulance class under the St. John Ambulance Association regulations was held in W&R Jacob in 1906, and throughout the twentieth century, the W&R Jacob Ambulance and Nursing Division of St John Ambulance attracted  employees of the factory to get involved with something practical and social in the workplace. Various records relating to their activities in the work place are held by Jacob's Biscuit Factory Archive  at Dublin City Library and Archive.  Additional records held by  St. John Ambulance Ireland National Headquarters.About our Guest BloggerThis article was prepared by Saffron East as part of the internship program with the M.Phil in Public History and Cultural Heritage at Trinity College Dublin.

I am currently digitizing photographs from the Fáilte Ireland Photographic Collection at Dublin City Library & Archive. These photos date from back to about the 1930s up until the present day. There are also negatives, in all sizes from glass plates to 5x4 negatives to small 35mm. The negatives are in good condition and due to their size they retain a great amount of quality.The photos for the most part are of Ireland's popular tourist destinations but also of places that are historically important. The photos show the unique beauty of Ireland and its unique culture. The boxes are organized by county. So I started with Wicklow as it is where I am from. After getting through several photos I found one funny picture of a lady hugging a cross and later on I found one similar. It was from Glendalough. I’ve been to Glendalough a lot; my grandparents are buried there. I’ve never noticed this large cross and certainly never noticed anyone hugging it. The cross is 'St Kevin's Cross' or 'The Wishing Cross'.Another picture that caught my eye was of a cross that was standing inside what looked like an old stone room. This cross was distinctive in its appearance. The cross appeared to be cracked in several places and also had a relief of a crucifixion on it. What also struck me was its location as if it was in storage or locked away.View the photos on flickr.The Wishing CrossSt Kevin's Cross as it is also known is almost four meters high. It stands in the graveyard near to the cathedral. The name 'Wishing Cross' derives from the legend that anyone who comes to the cross should try to embrace it. If they can wrap their arms fully around it and touch their hands on the other side a wish can be granted. The cross was dug and straightened and reinforced in 1989 so today it looks different from the pictures from Fáilte Ireland which are from between the 1940s and 1950s.The Market CrossThis Cross dates from about the 12th century. The name comes from the original location of the cross. It stood near the front of the entrance gateway where a market took place. Due to increasing traffic it was moved in 1912 to St Kevin's Kitchen where it stood before being placed in the visitor's centre. The cross was rebuilt from several different pieces in the 19th century. These different pieces show evidence of different types of wear and decay so it is believed they could have been used for different functions. Another piece seems to have been buried for some time. The pieces were found scattered around the Glendalough site.  The cross features the figure of the crucified Christ with another figure under him, possibly a saint or bishop.All black and white photographs are from the Fáilte Ireland Photographic Collection, Dublin City Library & Archive. See more Fáilte Ireland images in 'Through the Looking Glass': Tourism in Dublin 1940s-1950sAbout our Guest BloggerWritten by Joe Melican, Solas Student in the National Print Museum, on work experience in Dublin City Library and Archive, Pearse Street.

Citizens in Conflict #8. In 1916 the Dublin Harbour constituency was represented at Westminster by Alfred (Alfie) Byrne MP.  Dublin Harbour contained Mountjoy Ward, North Dock Ward, Rotunda Ward, (except a portion in the College Green constituency) and the portion of South Dock ward north of a line drawn along the centre of Great Brunswick Street. It also included the portion of Trinity Ward lying north of a line drawn along the centre of Great Brunswick street and the towns of Ringsend and Irishtown as well as sections of Beggar’s Bush. About 8,000 men had the vote in the constituency.Until his death in 1915 the local MP was William Abraham, aged 73, who lived in London, though originally from Limerick. Abraham’s background was in the Land League and he had been associated with craft unions in the 1880s, but those days were long behind him. Harbour contained a very large working-class population and trade unionist William O’Brien suggested that it was the ‘best Labour seat in Dublin and win it we must.’ James Connolly was suggested as a candidate. However Connolly declined to run and instead three nationalists contested the seat. Pierce O’Mahony, an old Parnellite, was one of the very few Home Rule MPs to have associated with the workers in 1913. Alfie Byrne, on the other hand, was the owner of the Verdon Bar, at 37 Talbot Street and a city councillor. He lived on the North Strand. and had been caricatured by Jim Larkin in the Irish Worker as ‘Alf Bung’ a man who entertained ‘slum landlords, scabs, prostitutes’ bullies … Hibs, Orangemen…the brothel-keeper (and) the white slaver’ in his pub. But Byrne won the election by 2,200 votes to O’Mahony’s 917. O’Mahony had strongly supported John Redmond and recruitment, while Byrne had opposed conscription, war-taxes and the war effort in general. He had shared anti-conscription platforms with James Connolly among others. The result is an indication that anti-war feeling was growing in Dublin.Image above: "Councillor Thos. Lawler and Alderman A. Byrne, who were before the firing line on Sunday and helped the wounded." Irish Independent, 29 July 1914 reporting on the shooting of three civilians at Bachelor's Walk on 26 July 2014, in the wake of the Howth gun-running (click to view larger image)The make up of a protest meeting in September 1915 at the Phoenix Park, shows the extent of cooperation between the various elements. Among those in attendance were Byrne, Thomas Farren president of the Trades Council, veteran separatist Henry Dixon, Sinn Féin’s Tom Kelly, The O’Rahilly, Councillor Lawrence O’Neill, James Connolly, feminist Hannah Sheehy-Skefffington, Piaras Beasley of the Volunteers and Larry Ginnell MP, nationalist MP for Meath.After the Rising Byrne involved himself in campaigning for prisoners, visiting internees in Britain as Cumann na mBan activist Brigid Foley remembered ‘we were entertained to lunch by Alfie Byrne in the House of Commons and to tea-with strawberries and cream- at Lyons’ Corner House. He came to the station with us and loaded us down with boxes of chocolates.’Nevertheless in 1918 Byrne lost his seat to Sinn Féin’s Phil Shanahan. However after independence he would have a long career in both local and national politics.AboutThis article is one in a series created by Dr Brian Hanley, historian-in-residence at Dublin City Library & Archive, to coincide with the exhibition 'Citizens in Conflict: Dublin 1916 / Éirí Amach sa Chathair: Baile Átha Cliath 1916', running at Dublin City Library & Archive from January to June 2016.Dublin Remembers 1916 Programme of Events | Hashtag: #Dublin1916

Digging through the photographic collections of the Dublin & Irish Collections, Pearse Street, I came across this set of photos from May 31st 1985. These photos were of the instantly recognisable collection of beards known as the ‘The Dubliners’ standing on a bridge playing music. The event was the unveiling of a plaque that announced the renaming the Ballybough Bridge to the Luke Kelly Bridge.

Technology is an ever-changing form for the collection and communication of information. What happens, however, when the form of equipment is no longer the current practice of collecting information? What happens when the method is out dated and showing its age? At Dublin City Library and Archive, the staff work hard to preserve the documented history of Ireland even in its less prevalent forms. Numerous images were generously donated from Fáilte Ireland, the national tourism development authority.