Category: 1916 and the Revolutionary Period

Posted on

Devlin’s Pub – meeting place of GHQ Intelligence

Photograph of a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating Devlin's Pub, Parnell Street, Dublin 1.

This plaque marks the location of Devlin’s Pub, which stood on the site of what is now the Point A Hotel, Parnell Street, Dublin 1.

In mid-1919, Derry born Liam Devlin relocated from Glasgow with his family of seven children to a public house that he bought at 68 Parnell Street, Dublin. Within a few weeks he had offered the use of upstairs rooms to Michael Collins.

The pub quickly became one of the main locations for meetings of the IRB Headquarters of Intelligence. It was a significant location during the War of Independence. Meetings were held daily at the pub, attended by Michael Collins, Frank Thornton, Liam Tobin, Emmet Dalton and many others of the leadership of the Volunteers and the IRB.

As many as eight to ten Volunteers and Officers were accommodated there every night during this period. Devlin was himself an Intelligence Officer and was entrusted with the safe keeping of National Loan Funds.

Michael Collins waited here for news about the abandoned escape and later execution of Kevin Barry. He was also in Devlin’s Pub on the morning of Bloody Sunday. The pub was the location of the Mutiny, which threatened the very survival of the Free State, led by Liam Tobin, in March 1924.

The plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste, and John Healey, grandson of Liam Devlin, on 5 April 2024.

Posted on

O’Leary, Jerome – youngest victim of Bloody Sunday 1920

A photograph of the Dublin City Council Commemorative plaque for Jerome O'Leary.

This plaque commemorates Jerome O’Leary who, at 10 years old, was the youngest of those killed at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920.

Find this plaque on Google maps.

The plaque reads:

JEROME O’LEARY
1910-1920
A Maraíodh i bPáirc an Chrócaigh ar Domhnach na Fola
A CHÓNAIGH ANSEO
Killed at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday
LIVED HERE

On the morning of 21 November 1920 fourteen suspected British intelligence personnel were killed, and one fatally injured, by the IRA.

That afternoon, as a reprisal, a force of Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), including the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, opened fire on the crowd attending a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary at Croke Park. 14 civilians were killed in the attack.

The second or third bullet fired killed 10-year-old Jerome O’Leary from Blessington Street. The boy was sitting on the wall at the Canal end of the pitch and was shot through the right side of his head.

Jerome was buried in Glasnevin where for many years his grave went unmarked. As part of its Bloody Sunday Graves project in 2019 the GAA erected a headstone for Jerome in Glasnevin.

Jerome O’Leary lived at 69 Blessington Street, where the plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor on 20 November 2023. The plaque was proposed by Mr Pearse Turner.

A detailed account of Bloody Sunday may be found in History on Your Doorstep volume 3, written by Dublin City Council historians-in-residence and available from any branch of Dublin City Libraries, or online at https://www.dublincity.ie/library/blog/history-your-doorstep-volume-3.

Posted on

Connolly, James – socialist & revolutionary

This plaque commemorates the socialist and signatory of the 1916 Proclamation James Connolly.

Find this plaque on Google maps.

Born in Edinburgh in 1868, to Irish parents, Connolly became a key figure in the Irish trade union movement and socialist politics, particularly after his return to Dublin from the United States in 1910.

From December 1910 to May 1911, Connolly and his family lived at 70 South Lotts Road, Ringsend, Dublin 4. The house is one of only two surviving in which Connolly lived in the City.

Connolly then moved to Belfast as organiser for the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), where he saw at first hand the sectarianism that blighted Belfast and the North East generally.

In 1912, along with William O’Brien and Jim Larkin, and others on the Dublin Trades Council, Connolly was instrumental in getting the Irish Trades Union Congress to establish a political wing, giving birth to the Labour Party.

Connolly returned to Dublin from Belfast during the 1913 Lockout and following Larkin’s departure for America in 1914 he became acting General Secretary of the ITGWU and the leader of the Irish Citizens’ Army.

Following the Lockout, and against the background of the First World War, Connolly became increasingly militant and in 1915 threw in his lot with the IRB, who were planning an insurrection.

Joining forces with the Volunteers, Connolly was one of the signatories of the Proclamation and fought alongside Pearse in the GPO. Following the surrender, and badly wounded and unable to stand, he was executed at Kilmainham by firing squad, while sitting on a wooden box.

The plaque was proposed by historian Dr Conor McCabe, Queen’s University Belfast, and unveiled by Lord Mayor Daithí de Róiste on 31 July 2023.

Posted on

ffrench-Mullen, Madeleine

This plaque commemorates both Madeleine ffrench-Mullen and her lifelong partner Dr Kathleen Lynn, who founded Teach Ultan (St Ultan’s Infants Hospital) at 37 Charlemont Street, Dublin 2.

Teach Ultan is now part of the Clayton Hotel, who kindly agreed to allow the plaque be erected.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

Born in Malta in 1880, Madeleine Ffrench-Mullen grew up in Dundrum, County Dublin. Having lived abroad for a few years she returned to Dublin in 1913 and worked in soup kitchens during the Lockout. She joined the Irish Citizen Army where she met her lifelong companion, Kathleen Lynn.

After the Rising she was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol, alongside Countess Markievicz.

Responding to the appalling rate of infant mortality in the city, Madeleine Ffrench-Mullen and Dr Lynn established St Ultan’s Infant Hospital at 37 Charlemont Street in April 1919. Ireland’s first paediatric hospital, it operated until 1984. Madelaine Ffrench-Mullen served as its secretary until her death in 1944.

You can read more about Dr Kathleen Lynn in her entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography.

For more information on St Ultan’s Infant Hospital, see Maeve Casserly’s article in History on Your Doorstep, volume 2, published by Dublin City Council.

The plaque was proposed by the 1916 Relatives Association, and it was unveiled by Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland, on 19th June, 2022.

Posted on

Lynn, Dr Kathleen

This plaque commemorates both Dr Kathleen Lynn and her lifelong partner Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, who founded Teach Ultan (St Ultan’s Infants Hospital) at 37 Charlemont Street, Dublin 2.

Teach Ultan is now part of the Clayton Hotel, who kindly agreed to allow the plaque be erected.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

A native of Mayo, Kathleen Lynn (1874-1955) was educated at the medical school in Cecelia Street, and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1909. A nationalist and a suffragist, who worked in food kitchens during the 1913 Lockout, she joined the Irish Citizen Army, serving as its Medical Officer, and tending the wounded in the 1916 Rising.

Imprisoned after the Rising, and again in 1918, her release was secured by Lord Mayor Laurence O’Neill so that she could tend to the sick during the Spanish Flu epidemic. She set up a GP practice from her home at 9 Belgrove Road, Rathmines, where she lived until her death in 1955.

Responding to the appalling rate of infant mortality in the city, Madeleine Ffrench-Mullen and Dr Lynn established St Ultan’s Infant Hospital at 37 Charlemont Street in April 1919. Ireland’s first paediatric hospital, it operated until 1984.

You can read more about Dr Kathleen Lynn in her entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography.

For more information on St Ultan’s Infant Hospital, see Maeve Casserly’s article in History on Your Doorstep, volume 2, published by Dublin City Council.

The plaque was proposed by the 1916 Relatives Association, and it was unveiled by Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland, on 19th June, 2022.

Posted on

Pearse, Patrick

This plaque commemorates Patrick Pearse, who lived with his family at 13 Sandymount Avenue, Dublin 4.

Pearse’s father, James Pearse, was a monumental sculptor who moved to Dublin around 1860. The family originally lived over the shop in Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street) before moving to Sandymount. Their first address in the area was on Newbridge Avenue, and they moved to 5 Georgian Villas, now number 13 Sandymount Avenue, in 1900. James Pearse made the altar railings for the Star of the Sea Church, on Sandymount Road.

Patrick Henry Pearse (1879-1916) was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist. Aside from his prominent role in the Easter Rising (for which he was executed on 3rd May 1916), he is best remembered as the author of The Murder Machine pamphlet on ‘the English education system in Ireland’ (Dublin, 1916), and his founding of the Irish language school St. Enda’s in Rathfarnham (which he ran during the last eight years of his life).

Pearse lived in Sandymount during a formative period in his life, when he was training to be a barrister, became one of the key figures in the Gaelic League, and took on responsibility for the family on the death of his father.

The terrace of houses at Sandymount Avenue was built in 1864 and residents over the years included W.B. Yeats and Abbey playwright TC Murray, who are both commemorated with plaques.

The plaque was proposed by Kathleen O’Callaghan, owner of the house, and it was unveiled by Lord Mayor Alison Gilliland, on 29th April, 2022.

Posted on

Four Courts Garrison

Located at the Capuchin Mission Office, Church Street, Dublin 7, D07 NNH4, this plaque commemorates the Four Courts Garrison.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

It is one of several plaques erected during the 1916 Centenary year to mark the garrison sites around the city, and to honour those who fought and died during the Rising.

The plaque was unveiled by Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh on 12th July, 2016.

Posted on

Jacob’s Factory Garrison

On the afternoon of Friday, 29th April 2016, a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating the Jacob’s Factory Garrison that served in the 1916 Easter Rising was unveiled at the Dublin Institution of Technology, Bishop’s Street, Dublin 2.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

The plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, and was the third in a series of 1916 Rising garrison plaques unveiled by Dublin City Council in April 2016.

In attendance at the ceremony were relatives of members of the Jacob’s Factory Garrison, as well as a National Colour Party from the Irish Defence Forces and elected members of Dublin City Council.

On Easter Monday 1916, the factory of W. & R. Jacob’s was seized by around 100 members of the 2nd Battalion of the Irish Volunteers’ Dublin Brigade, led by Commandant Thomas MacDonagh. A few smaller outposts in the area were also established by the garrison, with the overall objective of observing and hindering British troops entering the city centre from nearby military barracks.

After learning of the unconditional surrender of Patrick Pearse and James Connolly the previous day, MacDonagh surrendered on Sunday, 30th April. He was executed shortly afterwards at Kilmainham Gaol along with the two other most senior officers from the Jacob’s Garrison, Major John MacBride and Michael O’Hanrahan.

Those wishing to learn more about the history of Jacob’s factory should consult Séamus Ó Maitiú’s book W. & R. Jacob. Celebrating 150 Years of Irish Biscuit Making (Dublin, 2001).

Submitted by historian in residence James Curry.