New books offer valuable insights into Irish history

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

As we prepare to celebrate the 100th anniversary of 1916, there’s a real danger of overkill – no pun intended – and much of this has been driven by the government.

But there’s a lot of good stuff happening too, and that includes The Easter Rebellion 1916 – A New Illustrated History.

This is the work of Athenry historian Conor McNamara, who has been appointed to NUIG as its 1916 Scholar in Residence and it features a wide selection of photographs and documents that have not been widely seen outside academic circles previously.

It’s an area with which he is well familiar as he was senior researcher for the University of Notre Dame’s 1916 television series, to be broadcast in March 2016. (next March)

He gives a comprehensive and accessible account of the Rising, both the lead-up and the results, with each chapter being prefaced with a relevant poem by W B Yeats.

That information gives context to the illustrations, which range from drawings by Willie Pearse – Pádraig Pearse’s brother, who was executed after the Rising – and an invitation to a Convention Céilídh at Dublin’s Parnell Square in 1915.

There are also photos and letters from lesser-known victims of 1916, including a sad image of dead and wounded soldiers from the British Army’s Sherwood Foresters on Mount Street. The Battle of Mount Street, as this incident became known, saw the Irish Volunteers achieve their single biggest military success of the Easter Rising – the battle saw 240 casualties.

There are also individual photos of the four Volunteers who lost their lives in that battle. Conor McNamara gives a detailed account of the various battle sites in Dublin, with illustrations of the human cost. There’s a grainy photo of children queuing for food – remarkably chirpy in spite of the chaos around them.

The physical consequences are captured too, with many representations of a devastated Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street). There’s also a wonderful photo of the GPO after the Rising. The exterior is almost perfect, but there’s no roof and inside is a shell. The caption informs readers that it had been re-opened to the public earlier in 1916, following extensive renovations.

The book is full of such nuggets of information and has fascinating details about those involved in the Rising, including their final communications to loved ones. Éamon de Valera, who commanded the Irish Volunteers at Boland’s Mill during Easter Week, and later had his death sentence commuted, is photographed being escorted from the building. Unshaven and unbowed, he is flanked by three soldiers bearing rifles – two of them just boys.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.