Revolutionary times through Western eyes

Revolution in Galway, 1913-1923, is the title of a new exhibition at Galway City Museum that’s opening this Thursday at 6.30pm and running until 2023.

Acting Director of the Museum Brendan McGowan says the exhibition will highlight the role played by Galwegians in the Easter Rising. Most of the focus so far has been on Dublin, he adds, and “the Rising in Galway has been relegated to a mere footnote in the history of the revolutionary period. This is despite the fact that between 500 and 700 Volunteers, alongside 50 members of Cumann na mBan were active in Galway during Easter Week, a number greater than that of the GPO Garrison”, Brendan says.

Galway City Museum will display many significant items relating to revolutionary period. The material was gathered by liaising with individuals, communities and organisations, as well as with the national cultural institutions,

It includes a ‘green ensign’ flown from Moon’s Corner during the visit of King Edward VII to Galway in 1903; a German Mauser from the Asgard; a collection of items belonging to Liam Mellows who led the Western Rising, including a chess piece carved in Mountjoy Jail before his execution in 1922; an RIC revolver captured during an IRA ambush at Merlin Park in 1920; a biretta belonging to Fr Michael Griffin; an autograph book from Ballykinlar internment camp belonging to Volunteer Crowe from Bohermore; and a bronze bust of Éamonn Ceannt by Domhnall Ó Murchadha.

“Without Galway – and not forgetting Ashbourne, Co Meath, and Enniscorthy, Co Wexford – the Rising would truly have been a Dublin affair but the West gave it a national significance,” according to Brendan McGowan. “The Galway rebels held the greatest landmass during the Rising and in the aftermath more than a sixth of the 1,800 or so detained in Frongoch, Wales, were Galwegians.”

Galway also has other important connections to the Rising. Proclamation-signatory Éamonn Ceannt was a Galwayman, as was Thomas Clarke’s father, while Patrick Pearse had strong Connemara connections. In addition, many Galwegians were active in the capital during Easter Week.

The Museum exhibition will also include a short silent presentation about the Galway Rising, a touch-screen interactive with further information on people, places and memories of the Rising locally, and a reading of the Proclamation by Galwegians, native and adopted. Each section of the exhibition has also been reproduced as a graphic novel for younger audiences.

The organisers hope that Revolution in Galway, 1913-1923, telling the story of this period through Western eyes, will elevate Galway’s involvement from mere footnote to crucial chapter.