‘Well I’ve helped to wind up the clock – I might as well hear it strike.’ Michael Joseph O’ Rahilly
The Irish Rebellion of Easter week 1916 is fleshed out in vibrant detail-the breadth of organization and planning and also the particulars of the fighting in this pivotal event in Irish history.
After the clock struck on 24th April 1916 the reader is brought shoulder to shoulder with the men and women who fought so bravely on the bullet raked streets of Dublin while they choked on the thick dust of collapsing buildings, deafened by whizzing bullets and screaming shells. Authors Derek Molyneux and Darren Kelly felt it was ‘only by placing the reader in the midst of the cauldron that was central Dublin during Easter Week 1916 that we feel we can do justice to the memories of those who found themselves there, whether by choice or otherwise’. They recounted how many of the British uniformed troops considered it ‘as dangerous a battlefield as any they had encountered before or afterwards. They relate how the Republican forces’ ‘skilful use of street-fighting tactics and their dogged tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds… was commended by British Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith.
The Irish Defence Forces, in their May edition of An Cosantóir Magazine wrote:
‘The authors have delved into the witness statements held by the military archives and have recreated the battles fought in Dublin’s streets. The book’s opening chapter details the attack on the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. The detonation of the High Explosives store was to signal the beginning of the insurrection, but due to the fact that the Volunteers were unable to locate the keys for the room, the plan had to be shelved. A smaller explosion did manage to damage the magazine, but if they had succeeded, with the amount of explosives contained within; they might not only have blown up the store, but themselves with it.’
EXTRACT (edited)
Above image: The Magazine Fort and Paddy Daly
On Sunday morning 16th April 1916, 27 year old Irish Volunteer Paddy Daly entered Clontarf Hall, and was greeted by Seán Mc Dermott . ‘Paddy has some great ideas about the Magazine Fort and I would like you to hear what he has to say’. The Fort dated from 1734 and presented a daunting yet tantalising objective. It was a granite walled structure whose 12 foot high and 4 feet thick walls were protected by a deep ditch and ringed with several turrets.
Deception and guile were needed. Daly explained it was not uncommon for large groups of footballers to pass the Fort heading towards the nearby 15 acres playing fields. The assault force could simply disguise itself as such a group, using preferably Na Fianna members. Clarke nodded. Mc Dermott ordered, ‘Take the Fort. Blow it up, but no loss of life if possible’.
Above image: Eamonn Martin and Gary Holohan pictured.
On Easter Saturday, Garry Holohan found himself sitting in his bedroom staring at his haversack. His Martini-Henry rifle lay just across from it. With the rebellion just hours away, his nerves started to get to him, so to keep his mind occupied he checked his backpack over and over. He entered Pat’s room who laughed and said he was having the same trouble.
Holohan and Daly entered the Phoenix Park via its Islandbridge Gate. Daly threw the football into the centre of the group. Their kick about on the grass started and they began to edge towards the Fort. The sentry at the MagazineFort’s main gate cursed the monotony of the two-hour beat as he watched the bank-holiday footballers. Garry Holohan and Barney Mellows glanced up into the air, as the ball arched up and over the Fort’s wall. The game was on.
Above image: Interior of Magazine Fort.
They asked the sentry if they could have their ball back. As the sentry bent down to pick up the ball, he found himself dragged to the ground. He feared the worst momentarily as he felt the cold steel of a pistol barrel pressed into the nape of his neck, but the sharply uttered words, ‘don’t move and you’ll be fine’, provided welcome relief. The clatter of leather boots trampled close by him, the special force was in.
Above image: The Holohan brothers photographed in Na Fianna.
Holohan and Mellows rushed past, racing down the long corridor. The lack of gunfire to their rear reassured them that their backs were satisfactorily covered in order to allow them capture another sentry, who was positioned on the parapet of the large quadrangle at the Fort’s centre, before he could raise the alarm.
They burst through the door at the end of the corridor and into the bright sunlight, shielding their eyes as they scanned the parapet. ‘Where is he?’ muttered Holohan, then suddenly he spotted the tip of a bayonet sticking out by one of the machine-gun huts scattered along the structure. He rushed to the steps nearest him, while Mellows ran to the set furthest away, thereby surrounding the sentry, before they mounted the steps onto the parapet and shouted ‘Surrender!’ while Holohan covered the sentry with his pistol.
The sentry unshouldered his rifle to shoot, but his face suddenly twisted in pain as a shot rang out. Holohan had fired and hit him in the leg….
Above image: Irish Volunteers in the GPO photographed during the 1916 Easter Rising
This book covers, among others, the experiences of Volunteer Robert Holland, a sharpshooter who continued to fire despite the punishing recoil of his rifle. Volunteer Thomas Young and his group who were led to safety by his mother who acted as a forward scout – and then told her sons to lace up their boots. Mick Liston, who had a lucky escape when two bullets grazed the sides of his head simultaneously. Gerald Neilan who was with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers; his brother was a Volunteer. Thomas Devine who joined the fight after his work shift. Margaret Naylor, the mother of three who was shot dead on Mount Street Bridge. Within hours of her death, her husband was gassed to death in France where he was serving with a unit of the Dublin Fusiliers. The NCO who died when the grenade he threw at Clanwilliam House bounced off the second floor wall, flew back towards him and exploded next to his head. Twenty-year-old Sean McLoughlin who went from Volunteer to Captain to Commandant-General in five days: his cool head under a cataclysm of fire saved the lives of scores, if not hundreds, of his comrades in Moore Lane and Moore Street.
Above image: Monument to the 1916 battle at Mount Street Bridge, one of the bloodiest battles during the 1916 Easter Rising.
The reminders of the struggle are to be found today in just about every corner of Dublin’s city centre. From the numerous bullet holes throughout the buildings along Northumberland Road and O’ Connell Street, to the imposing façade of the Four Courts, there is much evidence of what the city endured, and what its people were faced with. It is also a reminder of what these people overcame.
Authors: Derek Molyneux and Darren Kelly are close friends who share a passionate interest in Irish and military history. Derek lives in Westmeath and Darren in Essex. They manage the popular Facebook page ‘Dublin 1916 Then and Now’. Derek has an intimate knowledge of Dublin’s streets, based on many years as a motorcycle courier, and understands how the same streets and people have preserved so much history.Darren, originally from Drumcondra in Dublin, had his initial interest in the 1916 Rising sparked at the age of ten and has since built up an in-depth understanding of Dublin’s revolutionary period.
You’re not going to get a better book on the close quarter combat of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.
Review by Marcus Howard
Youtube Easter Rising Stories
Here is an interview I had with the authors Derek Molyneux and Darren Kelly.
And here is a film I made with them where they are taking you through the bloody battle of North King Street in 1916.
Easter Rising Stories 