Category: 1916 and the Revolutionary Period

On Monday, 25^th April 2016, a plaque commemorating the death one hundred years earlier of Irish Volunteer Gerald Keogh, was unveiled at 117-119 Grafton Street (above Butlers Chocolate Café), with Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha speaking at the ceremony on behalf of Dublin City Council.

On the second day of the Easter Rising, Keogh – a former Fianna member who lived in Ranelagh – was killed near the location of the plaque while returning to the GPO on bicycle from Larkfield House, where he had been sent on a despatch by Patrick Pearse. The bullets were fired by a soldier positioned at Trinity College Dublin, possibly the Australian-born Mick McHugh.

Keogh was initially buried on the grounds of Trinity College before getting interred in Glasnevin Cemetery. Aged 22 years old at the time of his death, the shop assistant was the youngest of four brothers to take part in the Rising.

The plaque unveiling ceremony was attended by Keogh’s grandnephew Raymond M. Keogh, and Patrick McHugh, the great-great-nephew of the soldier who may have fired the shots which killed the young Irish Volunteer on 25^th April 1916.

Those wishing to learn more about the story of Gerald Keogh should consult Raymond M. Keogh’s book Shelter and Shadows. An Awakening to Our Common Identity (2016).

Submitted by historian in residence James Curry.

On the afternoon of Sunday, 24^th April 2016, two Dublin City Council plaques commemorating garrisons in the 1916 Easter Rising were unveiled in the city by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh.

The first of these plaques commemorates the Marrowbone Lane Garrison and was unveiled at the Eir Building, Marrowbone Lane, Dublin 8.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

This ceremony was attended by relatives of members of the Irish Volunteer’s 4^th Battalion, who occupied the South Dublin Union and surrounding buildings throughout the Rising. Also in attendance was a National Colour Party from the Irish Defence Forces.

Some of the fiercest close quarter fighting of the Rising took place at the South Dublin Union, which at the time was a sprawling complex of hospitals and workhouses. Led by Eamonn Ceannt, who would later be executed at Kilmainham Gaol, and his second-in-command Cathal Brugha, the Volunteers sought to hinder the movements of British soldiers from nearby military barracks and Kingsbridge (Heuston) Station. On Easter Monday and Thursday intense fighting took place in the vicinity which saw seven rebels, at least four civilians and more than twenty British forces killed.

Those wishing to learn more about the South Dublin Union and life of the commandant of the 4^th Battalion of the Irish Volunteers should consult Mary Gallagher’s biography 16 Lives: Eamonn Ceannt (2014).

Submitted by Historian in Residence James Curry.

Located off Philipsburgh Avenue, this plaque commemorates the location of the training grounds used by the Irish Citizen Army and the Volunteers in the period leading up to the Rising.

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 on 14th December, 2016.

Commemorating Sean McLoughlin, ‘the forgotten boy commandant’, this plaque is at 5 North King Street, Dublin 7.

Locate this plaque in Google maps.

You can read about Sean McLoughlin in Dictionary of Irish Biography

The plaque was unveiled on 5th March 2017.

On the afternoon of Sunday, 24^th April 2016, a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating the Easter Rising’s Mendicity Institution garrison was unveiled on a pillar outside the oldest working charity in Dublin.

Established in 1818, the Mendicity Institution creates opportunities for “people experiencing homelessness, isolation and marginalization to live better lives”. It is located at Usher’s Island, Dublin 8.

The plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, with historian Dr John Gibney and Deputy City Librarian Brendan Teeling also speaking at the ceremony.

On Easter Monday in 1916 the Mendicity Institution was seized by a small garrison of Irish Volunteers led by Seán Heuston, with orders from James Connolly to occupy the building for a short period and delay the advance of British troops along the north side of the River Liffey. With a force of less than thirty men, Heuston’s garrison held the Mendicity Institution for two days, before surrendering on Wednesday morning. One member of the garrison, Peter Wilson, was killed on this day, while another, Liam Staines, was badly wounded at an earlier stage and died two years later. Heuston was later executed at Kilmainham Gaol for his role in the Rising.

Those wishing to learn more about the life of Seán Heuston and the Mendicity Institution’s role during the Easter Risng, should consult John Gibney’s book 16 Lives: Seán Heuston (O’Brien Press, 2013).

Submitted by historian in residence James Curry.

On Wednesday, 27^th April 2016, a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating labour councillor Richard O’Carroll was unveiled at O’Carroll Villas, Cuffe Street, by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh.

In attendance were relatives of O’Carroll, who spent the last years of his life living at the Bricklayers’ Arms Institute on Cuffe Street, as well as representatives of the Building & Allied Trades’ Union.

An able and forthright councillor who was a bricklayer by trade, O’Carroll was a committed trade unionist and Irish revolutionary. During the 1916 Easter Rising, he was part of Thomas MacDonagh’s Jacob’s Factory Garrison and was mortally wounded by Captain J. C. Bowen-Colthurst on 26^th April after his capture. He was subsequently brought to Portobello military hospital where he died on 5^th May. O’Carroll was survived by his wife Anne and their seven children, the youngest born shortly after his death.

On 26^th April 2016 the Members’ Room at City Hall was renamed the Richard O’Carroll Room, with a bronze plaque unveiled that also commemorates Dublin City Councillors and Aldermen who were either participants in the Easter Rising (William T. Cosgrave, Sean T. O’Ceallaigh and William Partridge) or imprisoned afterwards (Thomas Kelly, Laurence O’Neill, Patrick T. Daly and Patrick V. Mahon).

Those wishing to learn more about the life of Richard O’Carroll should read the 2016 article by Dublin historian Donal Fallon for the Come Here To Me website.

Submitted by historian in residence James Curry.

On the afternoon of Monday, 4^th May 2016, a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating poet, journalist and 1916 Proclamation Signatory Joseph Mary Plunkett was unveiled at his birthplace and family home in Dublin 2.

Located at 26 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, the plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, on the centenary of Joseph Plunkett’s execution.

In attendance were several of Plunkett’s relatives, including his nephew Seóirse Plunkett, niece Siobhan Plunkett Gibney, great-grand-niece Honor Ni Brolchoin (who proposed the plaque), and Honor’s daughter Isolde Carmody (who recited some of her ancestor’s poetry at the event).

A member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s Military Council who devised the military plan for the Easter Rising, Plunkett was part of the GPO garrison in 1916, with Michael Collins serving as his aide-de-camp. Already dying from tuberculosis, he was executed in the stonebreaker’s yard at Kilmainham Gaol on 4^th May 1916, hours after marrying fiancé Grace Gifford in the prison’s chapel. He was 28 years old.

Those wishing to learn more about the subject of the plaque should consult Honor Ni Brolchoin’s biography 16 Lives: Joseph Plunkett (O’Brien Press, 2013).

Submitted by historian in residence James Curry.

On the morning of Thursday, 21^st July 2016, a Dublin City Council plaque commemorating Ireland’s first international radio broadcast was unveiled on the city’s main thoroughfare.

Located at the Grand Central Bar, 10-11 O’Connell Street, the plaque was unveiled by Denis Naughten, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Minister Naughten praised Joseph Plunkett’s foresight in recognising the power of radio, and the courage of Irish Volunteers such as Liam Daly and John “Blimey” O’Connor in erecting the aerial and apparatus necessary for the radio transmission under heavy fire.

Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha spoke on behalf of Dublin City Council’s Commemorative Naming Committee, with broadcaster Eugene Murphy also taking part in the unveiling ceremony.

On 25^th April 1916, a morse code message written by James Connolly was transmitted from what was then the Wireless School of Telegraphy, declaring to the world that a Republic had been declared in Dublin and the country of Ireland was “rising”.

The plaque was proposed by the Independent Broadcasters of Ireland, RTÉ Radio and the Boys and Girls creative agency as part of the celebration to mark the centenary of broadcasting in Ireland.

Those wishing to learn more about the subject of the plaque should consult Eddie Bohan’s booklet Rebel Radio: Ireland’s First International Radio Station 1916 (Kilmainham Tales, 2016).

Submitted by historian in residence James Curry.

This plaque commemorates those who fought in the 1916 Rising at the Royal COllege of Surgeons on Saint Stephen’s Green.

Locate this plaque on Google maps.

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