Sunday 4 June 2023

Glimpses of the revolutionary period in Dublin

On my walk around Dublin yesterday, as well as seeking locations relevant to my ancestor Teresa Mooney (see https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2023/06/researching-my-ancestor-teresa-mooney.html), I decided to prioritise one other place I had never been to before, and that was Dublin Castle. This was the seat of British power in Ireland for centuries, until the point in August 1922 when the British Army symbolicallly handed over control of the nation to the Irish Free State Army (the 'National Army'). I did not have time to do a tour, and so simply visited the place briefly to get a sense of where it was, in anticipation of a future visit. The courtyard is huge, and packed with tourists. You can find more about the castle at https://www.dublincastle.ie

I also had time to briefly pop into the General Post Office on O'Connell Street (which used to be known as Sackville Street), my first time inside in about 20 years, as I'm always in Dublin on Sundays or bank holidays, when it is closed! Another remarkable location, and where the proclamation was read in 1916 during the Easter Rising stating that Ireland was to become a republic (finally achieved in 1949).

Close to the Travelodge Plus hotel where I was staying I came across a wonderful statue of Constance Markiewicz, the first women ever to be elected as a Member of Parliament at Westminster (as a member of Sinn Fein). Markiewicz was also a founding member of Cumann na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army, which fought in the rebellion in 1916.    

Finally, a glimpse of the Parnell monument on O'Connell Street, dedciated to Charles Stewart Parnell, which carries the famous wording that "No Man has a right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation. No man has a right to say to his country "Thus far shalt thou go and no further". We have never attempted to fix the ne-plus-ultra to the progress of Ireland’s nationhood and we never shall".


* For more on the revolutionary period, including how to research members of both the Republican and Crown forces, there is a chapter on the Decade of Centenaries in my book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd edition) - see below for details on how to order! 

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

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