On Wednesday, 27th 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 26th April after his capture. He was subsequently brought to Portobello military hospital where he died on 5th May. O’Carroll was survived by his wife Anne and their seven children, the youngest born shortly after his death.
On 26th 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.