Step into history to help recreate historic photo of 1913 Oireachtas

The City’s Town Hall Theatre is putting out a call for members of the public to become part of history by participating in the re-enactment of a famous photograph taken on the steps of the theatre during the Gaelic League Oireachtas of 1913.

The re-enactment will take place at Town Hall Theatre on Saturday, June 18. and is part of this year’s Galway Sessions which commemorates 1916 leader and piper Éamonn Ceannt. Anyone interested in participating should contact Siobhan at Galway Arts Centre siobhan@galwayartscentre.ie

This photograph features some of the men and women who went on to participate in the Rising and become the leaders of the new Irish state. Included in the picture are three future presidents of Ireland – Douglas Hyde, Seán T Ó Ceallaigh and Éamon de Valera. Also present were signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, Pádraig Pearse, Seán Mac Diarmada and Éamonn Ceannt, as well as other noted figures such as Cathal Brugha and Countess Markievicz

To commemorate this historical event, 163 people are needed for the new photograph to reflect the Ireland of today. A call has gone out far and wide, seeking descendants of the original figures to come to Galway and stand where their ancestors stood over a hundred years ago – so anybody with a family connection connection is invited to get in touch. Members of the public are also asked to participate and stand in for the relatives who cannot be there.

The recreation of this photograph is a historic moment and will become another and unique chapter in the city’s cultural archives.

The photograph was presented to the Town Hall by members of the Curran family in 2013 and is is now on permanent display at the theatre.

The 1913 Ard Fheis marked an important juncture in the history of the Gaelic League. Internal divisions between the apolitical old guard of the movement and a republican/IRB faction had come to the fore in the preceding months, leading eventually to the 1915 decision by the Gaelic League to revoke its previously politically neutral stance and support separatism.

The iconic photograph was discovered in a box in the attic by the Curran family in Dublin whose maternal grandparents were members of the Keating branch of the Gaelic League. Their grandfather and other relatives are in the photograph. Their grandmother had passed the photograph on to their mother and it lay safe in the attic of the family home for the best part of 50 years. When the family took the photo down from the attic in 2010, they noticed a few famous faces. The more they looked, the more  well-known people they recognised and they were intrigued.  At first, they thought that it was taken at the Gaelic League Oireachtas in 1914 and so spent a lot of time searching for a match for the building in Kerry.

In early 2013, when they finally identified the building as Galway’s Town Hall Theatre, they realised the full significance of the picture and the fact that 2013 was the centenary of the occasion on which it was taken.

”We gave the photograph to the Town Hall Theatre because it is only right that it should return to the place where it was taken to be enjoyed by the people of Galway and the public at large” said a family member.

A team of volunteers helped to identify most of people in the photograph and the family are hopeful that members of the public can help identify the few remaining names.

Contact Siobhan at Galway Arts Centre siobhan@galwayartscentre.ie if you are interested in taking part.