Opening of 'When the Dawn is Come: 1916 and Meath'

Speech by Cllr Brian Fitzgerald, cathaoirleach, Meath County Council, at opening of exhibition in Solstice Arts Gallery

Last year Meath County Council committed to devising an inclusive and comprehensive programme that in 2016 would allow Meath to 'Remember, Reconcile, Imagine, Present and Celebrate'.

With the launch of this wonderful exhibition “When the Dawn is come, Meath & 1916” we are starting that process of reflection. A few weeks ago all eyes were focused on Ashbourne and the Battle of Ashbourne, as we rightly remembered the historic events that took place in our own county. We were able to remember all participants in those momentous events and to celebrate those events in a dignified and meaningful manner through a re-enactment, a state ceremony and a community concert.

Tonight we are reflecting, and this exhibition enables us to do just that in a very unique and creative way. This exhibition allows us to examine some aspects of the origins, course and outcome of the Rising by exploring the stories attached to a selection of contemporary documents, objects and artefacts that have survived the ravages of time. As a discipline, history naturally prizes the written word, whether in the form of documents that provide empirical evidence, or testimonies that can encapsulate the lived experience of the past. Yet material culture has a story to tell as well; or in this case, stories. Artefacts that now reside in museums and other repositories were seen, touched and used by individuals who witnessed or participated in past events. Such objects are themselves silent witnesses, but their existence can open doors into the past. Some of them may be familiar, some of them may not be, but all of them can reveal aspects of the lead up to this seminal event in modern Irish history. The Easter Rising might be deemed worthy of either admiration or condemnation, but before one can reach conclusions about the past, one has to look at that past as honestly and as fairly as is possible. The objects that you see and the stories that follow constitute a modest attempt to do just that.

The one item, that I cannot fail to mention, is the original letter from Padraic Pearse – to see before us the letter written in his own hand and to imagine the response of the reader, Fr Smyth is indeed to be a witness to history.

Pearse was signalling the date for the Rising in this letter, which dates from February 1916 and he was setting out the case for the establishment of a new newspaper to rouse the people.

Indeed, given all that we have heard about Padraig Pearse in recent months, it is of even greater significance, as we can identify with Pearse’s gift for oratory, his self-belief and his sense of fulfilling his own destiny.

The letter is deserving of being read aloud, and forgive me while I try to do it justice:

St Enda’s College,

Rathfarnham.

24/2/16

A Chara Chroise,

I had heard about Gwynn, but did not know it for certain till I got your note. Am very sorry. He is only logical, Yet, had he known, he would not have done it.

I don’t think we cd. do much with “New Ireland”, beyond of course contributing odd articles and improving the tone and using it as an ally. But with its tradition and even in its format it cannot be made the paper of the Revolution.

I feel now with absolute certitude that we need a paper to be the paper of the Revolution, and that if we do not get it we shall fail (altogether). The people must be roused. Given a run of four or five weeks, I can and will rouse them, with your and other people’s help. A paper speaking with the proper voice now would be greater than the Nation, and greater than Mitchel’s United Irishmen, and do the thing more successfully: in fact, do what they nearly did. Now the name should be “the Shan Van Vocht” and the size should be as the enclosed. The first two or three nos. should develop the spiritual side, with a proper review of current events (which none of the existing papers give), and the last number or two (for there will probably be only five or six in all) should announce the revolution as clearly as Lalor in ’48. It should be published on Fridays, and the first no. should appear on St. Patrick’s Day.

Tom (of whose accident you will have heard) is not about yet, and I have not been able to discuss it with him; but I have written my views today and will send them to him and Sean. No time can be allowed to slip past now. I have already asked Mahon for an estimate.

We want a good manager to relieve us of the business part.

Let me know your views, by hand.

Thank you for your attention and I look forward to working with all of you to ensure that 2016 continues to be a year for remembering, and a year to be remembered.

 

Solstice Exhibition Guide

 

 

In the foreword to his booklet Ghosts, dated ‘Xmas Day, 1915’, Pádraig Pearse writes: There is only one way to appease a ghost. You must do the thing it asks you. The ghosts of a nation sometimes ask very big things, and they must be appeased, whatever the cost.

 

The material gathered here, in addition to being a snapshot of the revolutionary period in Meath, is a starting point for reflection.

 

In these objects the ghosts of the Rising are present. They marched under these banners. In their official minutes they wrote of sorrow, misery and ruin. In the letters to which they signed their names they alluded to better days.

 

A century on from the Rising, as we recall what happened, reflect on our shared histories, and re-imagine the Republic’s future, we assess the legacy of that first blow for national self-determination.

 

These objects pose questions and focus our attention.

What they are asking us is up to ourselves to divine.

 

There is no single narrative. The stories are ours to recount.

 

Brian O’Higgins (1882-1963)

O'Higgins was born in Kilskyre to a family with very strong Fenian traditions. He moved to Dublin as a teenager, became active in the Gaelic League and was a teacher of Irish. He fought in the GPO in 1916 and was a well known writer of poetry, short stories and historical articles. From the late 1920s he ran a successful business publishing greeting cards, calendars etc. decorated with Celtic designs and his own verses. From 1935 to 1962 he published the Wolfe Tone Annual which gave popular accounts of episodes in Irish history from a republican viewpoint. He was a devout Catholic and very strongly republican in his political views.

The portrait is painted by Una Watters, his wife’s niece. She worked in Brian’s business and is responsible for the Celtic artwork on his cards.

Timeline

The timeline covers Irish events which were contributing, in particular, to feelings of national fervour and patriotism, to a sense of Irishness and Irish identity. Meath events around the Rising time are highlighted also.

The Meath Chronicle

The local newspaper in 1916, as now, was the Meath Chronicle. The 1916 volume is open at the first issue after the Rising took place. The blue crayon ticks refer to payments made to the paper for ads inserted.

Mother Columba Gibbons

Mary Gibbons was born in Collinstown, County Westmeath in 1873 and trained as a teacher at Baggot Street Training College in the 1890s. There she formed a friendship with Sinéad Flanagan who later married Éamon De Valera. Both women were involved in the cultural nationalism of the early twentieth century.

She joined the Loreto Order in 1903 and trained at St. Anne’s Convent in Navan, where she was appointed principal of the primary school.

Her song entitled ‘Who Fears to Speak of Easter Week?’ is based on John Kells Ingrams’ ‘The Memory of the Dead’, [better known as 'Who Fears to Speak of '98' or 'Ninety Eight', written in 1843 and published anonymously in honour of the 1798 Rebellion led by the United Irishmen].

The Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge)

This was founded on 31 July 1893 at 9 Lower Sackville Street (O’Connell Street), Dublin. Its aim was to preserve Irish as a spoken language. By 1899 58 branches had been established, mostly in the cities and the large towns, and by November 1900 approximately 160 branches were in existence.

The object of the League was to help people learn Irish and encourage its use in everyday life. It held weekly meetings and conversation evenings, published a newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis, and successfully campaigned to have Irish included in the school curriculum. The first president of the League was Douglas Hyde, also first President of Ireland, and another founding member was Fr Eugene O Growney (1863-1899), a priest born in Athboy. He produced a very successful series of Irish lesson books for adults to learn Irish.

The first branch was established in County Meath in Dunshaughlin in November 1900, followed by Navan, Kells, Athboy, Slane, Oldcastle, Trim, Rathmore, Warrenstown all in 1901 and Stackallen in 1902.

The banner on display belonged to the Navan branch of the League and is on loan to the exhibition.

Irish Volunteers

The Irish Volunteers, Óglaigh na hÉireann, were founded on 25 November 1913 at a public meeting held in the Rotunda Rink in Dublin. The founders included The O’Rahilly, a member of the governing body of the Gaelic League, Eoin Mac Néill, Professor of Early and Mediaeval Irish History at University College Dublin, and Patrick Pearse, another prominent member of the Gaelic League.

The movement had a membership of 180,000 by mid 1914 but split over whether its members should enlist in the British Forces and fight in the European war. About 11,000 strongly opposed this and kept the original name. The remainder became known as the National Volunteers.

The Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret revolutionary body, effectively took over control of the Irish Volunteers and using it, planned and directed the rebellion in 1916.

Artefacts on display include a period holster, a Cumann na mBan medal for service. C na mB was the female Volunteer force formed in April 1914, merging with and dissolving Inghinidhe na hÉireann, and in 1916 it became an auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers. Although it was otherwise an independent organisation, its executive was subordinate to that of the Volunteers. Members acted as couriers, nurses and caterers during the Rising.

Also on display is an original Francis Ledwidge letter, where the Slane poet anticipates his own death. He was killed preparing for the 3rd battle of Ypres in July1917.

Desmond Ryan (1893-1964)

Ryan grew up in Navan where his father was editor of the Irish Peasant newspaper from 1903-1906.

In the interview he talks of his memories of Navan and Meath, and his school and teaching days in St Enda’s with Padraig Pearse. Ryan took part in the Rising under Pearse’s command at the GPO. Much of the interview is taken up with Ryan’s memories of Pearse who had a great enthusiasm for the Irish and English languages and had a great interest in the works of Shakespeare.

Pearse letter

This centrepiece of the exhibition is a letter written by Pearse to an associate Fr Patrick Smith who was born in Kilskyre and was serving in Castlepollard parish at the time. It starts by commenting on Gwynn. This is, in all likelihood, Stephen Gwynn (1864-1950). He was an Irish journalist, biographer, author, poet and Protestant Nationalist politician and an MP for Galway city in the House of Commons. He served as an officer during World War I.

During this period he was active in the Gaelic League and had close links to the Irish literary revival. He strongly supported Redmond's encouragement of Irish nationalists and the Irish National Volunteers to enlist in Irish regiments and fight in WW1, especially as a means to ensure the implementation of the suspended Home Rule Act at the end of the war.

It seems that the newspaper Pearse envisaged to promote the upcoming Rising, the Shan Van Vocht, was never published. The Tom and Sean in the letter are Thomas Clarke and Sean MacDiarmada, two signatories of the Proclamation and the planned meeting in Kent’s house refers to Eamonn Ceannt, also a signatory. All 3, and Pearse, were executed in May 1916 for their parts in the Rising.

The letter was donated to the library by the Conway family of Ballivor, Co Meath. Additional information on the letter is available at the Reception Desk,

Council Records

These Minute books record the almost universal official condemnation of the Rising by all public bodies and representatives in the immediate aftermath of the event. Opinions changed during and after the executions of the leaders and opinions still vary today.

Irish National Foresters (Dean Cogan branch, Navan, no. 350)

The Navan (Dean Cogan branch) of the Irish National Foresters was established in March 1899. Members paid a weekly subscription and they and their families were entitled to relief during sickness or other infirmity. The INF motto was, and still is, “Unity, Benevolence and Nationality”. It was strictly non-sectarian and non-political, though it supported the Home Rule movement from 1877 and later supported Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party though it was not active politically.

The Foresters’ offices and rooms were at Church Hill until 1927 when a new hall was built where the Solstice Arts Centre now stands. The Foresters’ Hall was a social centre where dances were held twice weekly. (Admission was one shilling and sixpence, and ladies attended by invitation).

Membership grew to 500 at its peak, and the town of Navan witnessed the end of an era when the branch wound up in 2003.

On one side of the banner is Dean Anthony Cogan (1826-1872), a priest from Slane who was historian of the Meath Diocese and author of the important 3 vol History of the Diocese of Meath, Ancient and Modern.

Oldcastle Internment Camp 1914-1918

The first civilian internees of German and Austrian birth arrived in Oldcastle in November 1914 and were interned in the workhouse on the outskirts of the town. A steady stream of arrivals continued, and by February 1915 there were 304 ‘enemy aliens’, which reached a peak of 579 internees in June 1916.

Rumours circulated in Dublin during Easter Week of the imminent arrival of 600 armed Germans to support the Rising. The internees received a hostile reception when they were moved to the Isle of Man in June 1918. The workhouse was returned by the military authorities to the Poor Law Guardians in 1919.

The building was destroyed by fire in May 1920. Mellows’ Park and St. Brigid’s Terrace now stand on the site.

Kaiser Franz Joseph (1830-1916)

Franz Joseph was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia and King of Bohemia. An inmate of the Internment Camp at Oldcastle made this plaster cast model.

Infirmary Records

The County Infirmary opened in Navan in 1753 and was for many years the only hospital in Meath. The records on view here list the admissions for the week of the Rising and indicate that many wounded RIC men were treated in the hospital.

Also in the display is a memorial card to Thomas Ashe who was Commander at the Battle of Ashbourne on Easter Friday 1916. He died in 1917 while on hunger strike.

The Ashbourne Memorial Book was published in 1959 by the Fingal Old IRA to commemorate the battle.

The Roll of Honour lists all the Meath participants in the First World War.

The hospital operating table dates from the period and is kindly on loan from a private collector.