Easter Rising Booklets/Books/Documents

The archives at UCD have a number of booklets produced after the Easter Rising.

I've downloaded copies to my iPad and save them in iBooks. Very handy for then reviewing/referencing.

A Fragment of 1916 History

The Sinn Fein Revolt

1916 Before and After

Fianna Heroes of 1916

Dublin and the Sinn Fein Rising

The Sinn Fein Leaders of 1916

J R Clark notes from 1916

Dublin after the Six Days Insurrection

A must have resource for anyone interested in the Easter Rising :

Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook (also known as the 1916 Rebellion Handbook)

Some additional free ebooks re the Easter Rising can be found at this webpage

Digital Book Index


Karl Spindler's book can be difficult to find/expensive. A PDF version can be found here :

Gun Running for Casement in the Easter Rebellion 1916


If anyone finds any other online booklets/books re the Easter Rising, please feel free to add a comment or email doylejsd@gmail.com.

Edited 20th June 2017 : UCD links updated. Sadly a couple of PDFs no longer available online.

Easter Rising damage on film

From the British Pathe archives

Easter Rising Damage

O'Connell (Sackville) Street

Liberty Hall

A mix of clips in this film labelled as Liberty Hall 2
Liberty Hall 2

Some of the above links with these clips from 1915 (views of Lancers and entrance to Dublin Castle)
Lord Wimborne
New Viceroy 1915
State Entry to Dublin Castle

This following clip is a road search put down as Easter 1916. The helmets on troops suggest otherwise. I wrote to BP to point this out and they have written a note in the amendment section.

Road Search

Labelled as 1916 to 1922 but nothing from 1916 (a mixed bag of War of Independence and Civil War material)

Revolution 1916-1922

The Irish Soldier on Film

A talk next week by Lar Joye of the National Museum of Ireland re "The Irish Soldier on Film"

http://www.museum.ie/en/list/calendar-of-events.aspx?eventID=4178

Would like to go to this and see if there is anything re (John) Gordon Lewis and Norman Whitten.

John Walsh and John O'Neill - North King St

The booklet "A Fragment of 1916 History" gives a bit more background to some of the murders in North King Street during the Easter Rising in Dublin.

http://digital.ucd.ie/get/ivrla:30958/content

Mrs Ellen Walsh mentions that her husband John Walsh had served 10years in the British Army (including service during the Boer War).

Would be interested to find out more. A possible lead is a John Walsh from Fermoy, Co Cork in the UK 1911 census serving with the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars(KRIH) in India; number 3902 J Walsh served with the 8th KRIH during the Boer War. Nothing to confirm if the two are records about a single man or if this is the John Walsh from North King Street.

Mrs Walsh mentions the death of her brother William O'Neill, the death of another brother during WW1 and a third brother with an arm missing as a result of WW1.

In the 1901 census the family are in Church St

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Arran_Quay/Church_St__Upper/1277944/

with 3 brothers Patrick, Christy (Christopher) and John as well as William. In the 1911 census, Ellen is a widow, Mrs Russell, with 2 children

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Arran_Quay/Church_Street/32644/

Patrick isn't at the same address but Christopher and John are. William is there too.


A John O'Neill is with the Connaught Rangers and with an address in North King St according to his will

http://soldierswills.nationalarchives.ie/reels/sw/O'NeillJ_E172266.pdf

The age and parents name on his CWGC record appear to match

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1766048/O'NEILL,%20JOHN


His medal index card show he entered France 17th December 1915 and that he was entitled to the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Improvised Armoured Cars, Dublin 1916

On page 33 of the "Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook" the chairman of the Great Southern and Western Railway Company, Sir William J Goulding Bart DL, indicated that the company assisted the army during the Easter Rising by producing 5 armoured cars.

Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook

There is some correspondence in the Bureau of Military Archives re the armoured cars but the records from the era don't appear to have recorded much about the work undertaken :

Bureau of Military History files

Curragh Military Museum

The March 2014 issue of Military Machines International has a small article about the displays at the Curragh Military Museum. Photos include :

Churchill tank
Peerless armoured car
Rolls Royce armoured car
Comet tank
several Panhard  armoured cars
120mm Brandt AM 50 mortar
18pounder Quick Fire artillery piece
3.7inch howitzer

More details of the museum can be found at :

http://www.curragh.info/museum.htm

RTE "Pioneers and Aviators : A Century of Irish Aviation"

Looking forward to catching the RTE production "Pioneers and Aviatiors : A Century of Irish Aviation", a 2 part production on this Thursday night (20th February 2014 at 10:15pm) on RTE 1. Part 2 the following Thursday (27th February 2014 at 10:15pm).

A very basic preview is available on YouTube (thanks to Jawgap on boards.ie for this link).

Appears to be produced by Avolon and directed by Michael Gilsenan :

http://www.avolon.aero/pressrelease/2014/pressRelease_pioneerAndAviators.htm

North King Street, 1916

On a thread on boards.ie, the following blog entry by an Easter Rising author was added as a link

http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/04/13/the-north-king-street-massacre-dublin-1916/

The chap who posted the link didn't react too well to my questioning the accuracy of the blog.....

While the blog has been updated slightly, it still has errors and odd links. The murders of 15 people (or should that be 16 - most of the 'mainstream' Easter Rising books don't mention William O'Neill) at North King Street were a travesty and needs to be remembered but there is little point in works with so many inaccuracies.

1. The Ballad
The ballad mentioned has nothing to do with the murders at North King St ; it relates to the execution of Pearse, Connolly etc at Kilmainham Gaol. Copies of the full ballad can be viewed at :

http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php?DRIS_ID=SamuelsBox5_0599

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000510589

2. Major Sheppard
Sheppard was promoted to Captain just before the Easter Rising. He was discharged from the army as a result of wounds received during the Rising and never reached the rank of Major. This error is in the Max Caulfield book and is repeating Caulfield's error.

3. Bowen-Colthurst murders
The blog originally stated

"the famous pacifist, Francis Sheehy Skeffington, who had been trying to organize “citizen police”, to stop the looting, was taken to a cellar and shot along with six others by an officer named Bowen Colthurst at Portobello barracks"

The cellar has now gone and the entry now reads

"Francis Sheehy Skeffington, who had been trying to organize “citizen police”, to stop the looting, was shot along with six others by an officer named Bowen Colthurst at Portobello barracks."

Not sure where the 6 others comes from. Dickson, MacIntyre and Coade were definite murders attributed to Bowen Colthurst, though he wasn't charged with the murder/manslaughter of Coade. Councillor Richard O'Carroll is another probable/possible murder by Bowen Colthurst. Would like to know who the other 2 are.

A copy of a report re the murder of Francis Sheehy Skeffington can be found online at :

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-35047428/view?partId=nla.obj-35047431#

4. Bachelors Walk
The blog states :

"In 1914, the Scottish Borderers’ Regiment fired on a riotous crowd at Bachelor’s Walk, in Dublin, killing three people and injuring 85. A Court Martial was duly held, but as in 1916, no punitive action was taken."

There was no court martial after the killings at Bachelors Walk. The authors own book states that the soldiers opened fire "killing 4 and wounding 37".

5. Use of Bayonets
A bit of a fixation with the use of bayonets. The blog lists the following and suggests that the presence of bayonet marks indicates that they were killed with the bayonet and references Crossfire by Paul O'Brien (p93-96 ) and The Easter Rising by Foy and Barton (p248-249)

1 Thomas Hickey (38) 170 North King Street

2 Christopher Hickey (16) 170 North King Street (Father and son)

3 Peter Connolly (39) 170 North King Street

(These three bodies had bayonet marks indicating they were killed with the bayonet)

In O'Brien's Crossfire, the text reads that they "were killed, their bodies showing bayonet marks". This tallies with what is written in the 1916 Rebellion Handbook. It does not state they were killed with the bayonet. In Foy and Barton's book, there is no mention of the Hickeys, Connolly or bayonets on the pages referenced ie 248-249, only general information about the North King St murders.

Desmond Ryan's book "The Rising" carries a description of the capture of the Hickeys and Connolly at approximately 6am on the Saturday through to their murder between 10am and 10:30am that morning from a Mrs Kate Kelly who was arrested with them. She wasn't in the room when they were killed but mentions that shots rang out. It also carries a description from Mrs Hickey on seeing the bodies for the first time at approximately 5pm on the Sunday. She makes no mention of bayonet wounds on any of the 3 (but neither does she mention gun shot wounds). Mrs Connolly was brought to see the 3 bodies later on Sunday. She mentions "my poor husband was greatly marked and had several great gashes around the neck and head which appeared to be bayonet wounds" (she mentions nothing about gun shot wounds).

Writing in "Inglorious Soldier", Monk Gibbon devotes a chapter to "Murder at Portobello Barracks" outlining his time there during the Easter Rising, the murders of Sheehy Skeffington etc, his work with Major Vane and mentions "There was certainly nothing kid-glove about the shooting of sixteen year old Christy Hickey".

The death certificate of Christopher Hickey is the only one that mentions a bayonet as the cause of death.

"A Fragment of 1916 History" is a small booklet with some statements from wives etc plus a map of where the murders took place. William O'Neill appears in this booklet but Edward Dunne does not :

http://digital.ucd.ie/get/ivrla:30958/content