Republic of Ireland 1916 Exhibition in Dublin 30th/31st May

[molders]

An exhibition of original 1916 related material is being held in Wynns Hotel in Abbey Street, Dublin on the weekend of the 30/31st May 2009 This exhibition has been organised to display a unique collection of memorabilia and artefact's from the Easter Rising. These will include The surrender flag from Moore Street Jack Plunketts bullet marked Volunteers slouch hat The lock of James Connolly's hair cut the night before his execution on the families instructions, along with Connolly's silver medal awarded to him for the "Dublin Labour War of 1913-1914" Tom Clarke's diary, wallet, photo album and other personal effects. There will also be a fine collection of original uniforms, flags, medals and other items from the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army and Na Fianna. Most of these items have been in safe keeping of the immediate families and have therefore never been seen in public before. This is a rare chance to view them. There will also be the opportunity to view a digitally enhanced print of the famous GPO Garrison veterans group photograph taken in Croke Park in 1938. A volunteer will be on hand to help add any names to the many unidentified faces within the group. Relatives of the executed 1916 leaders will also be present over the weekend. James Connolly Heron a great grandson of James Connolly will be unveiling an alternative plan for the Moore Street area. On Sunday 31st there will be guided tours of 'Battlefield Moore Street' at 2pm 4pm 6pm. This event is being held to highlight the proposed fate of No. 16 Moore Street which was the last head quarters of the GPO garrison in 1916 and was the site from which the garrison surrended. It is being held to build on the success of the recent 'Arms Around Moore Street' demonstration.

[leigh kitchen]

You'll be there, & post photos?

What's happening re Moore St? Redevelopment or preservation / restoration?

[molders]

I'll be there as I'm helping to organise it. The James Connolly items are especially poignant. The lock of hair has been mounted in a gold locket and is in the posession of the Connolly family. It was cut from his head on the eve of his execution by a nurse from Dublin Castle.The silver medal of his is also a knock out item and Connolly must have been very proud of it. The Plunkett cap again is directly from the family. The Clarke items are mainly from the collection that Adams sold in 2006 and the remainder of the display will be formed from both the families of the executed leaders and from private collections. There will also be items from Countess Markievicz and one of Irelands earliest Olympic medals that was won in 1912 by a man who later served in the 1916 Rising!

There was an oral hearing into the redevelopement of Moore Street two weeks ago and judgement is due shortly. If the developement goes ahead then the entire area will disappear. While 14-17 Moore Street is a National Monument, if the developer gets his way then the buildings will be gutted and only the fronts will remain. All of the other houses in the terace will be knocked and the lanes and some of the streets in the area will be gone for ever. You'll get an idea of whats proposed at

http://www.developer.ie/wp-content/uploads...nhunter_119.jpg

The highest part of the "park in the sky" is just over where the 1916 garrison surrendered from. In this day and age to think that Dublin City Council would bull doze such a historic site to allow a developer to build another shopping mall just doesn't seem right.

[molders]

Have a look at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUNBugR16Cw

the sounds a bit dicey, but the speech outside No.16 Moore Street starts about 50 seconds or so into the clip.

[leigh kitchen]

...... In this day and age to think that Dublin City Council would bull doze such a historic site to allow a developer to build another shopping mall just doesn't seem right.

It seems amazing that they'd even consider it.

[molders]

May be of interest to this campaign;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqqMfhcN5Uo

[PKeating]

Planning permission has never been a problem for anyone with money in Ireland. However, this is particularly scandalous and it is to be hoped that something can be done.

PK

[Guest Rick Research]

Over here the classic end run around historic preservation has always been the "tragically coincidental renovation fire."

I can no longer be amazed by what some people will do for money.

[PKeating]

Perhaps the depression in Ireland will influence things. What use is a shopping centre when everyone is too broke to go shopping? There again, the powers-that-be may be scared of being seen to do anything that hinders any construction project, given that industry's parlous state in Ireland since before the 'credit crunch'. If the developer is a powerful local with friends in high places and on the golf course, the entire Citizens Army and IRA risen from the dead with well-oiled weapons won't save Moore Street and its environs. Good old Irish venality will win the day because most of our people are hooked on easy money, sad though it be to say so.

Thanks for the tip about the exhibition, though. I'll be in Dublin that weekend.

PK

[Paul L Murphy]

What time does the exhibition start on Saturday ?

[molders]

Its open from Midday to 6 PM both days. On Saturday we hope to have members of the families of the 7 signatories of the Proclamation present. On Sunday we've "battlefield" walks organised at 2PM, 4PM and 6PM. A guide will take anyone interested on the tour of the GPO/Moore Street area.

Theres a 21st on in the hall on the Saturday night and we've to take everything out and set up again on the Sunday which is a real pain, but we wanted to have the exhibition in Wynns which in itself is a historic venue.

We've no idea how many people will turn up but we'll see on the weekend!

[molders]

Edited May 18, 2009 by molders

[irishmedals]

Good luck with your exhibition and well done for your efforts...i hope it is a success and raises awareneess to the redevelopment of Moore Street.

Have you contacted RTE or TV3 to get some media coverage? a great way of getting the public support behind you.

[molders]

Of course if you can't make it along to Wynns on the 30th/31st you can always find the REAL stuff on ebay;

http://cgi.ebay.com/VERY-OLD-PRINTED-Copy-...alenotsupported

[Paul L Murphy]

Of course if you can't make it along to Wynns on the 30th/31st you can always find the REAL stuff on ebay;

http://cgi.ebay.com/VERY-OLD-PRINTED-Copy-...alenotsupported

He needs his head examined !

[molders]

Show went well. It was a lot of effort but on Saturday we had 6 relatives of the 7 leaders who signed the Proclamation in attendance as well as Con Colberts great nephew for the ribbon cutting. We had six cases for the seven leaders (Eamonn Ceannt and Sean Mac Dermott had to share!), two cases for the Irish Volunteers, one for the Citizen Army and one for the Fianna and Cumann Na mBan, one for the period from 1921 to 1966 (honour roll, 1916-21 club etc) and one for the 1966 50th anniversary. There was a lot against us; it was a holiday weekend with beautiful weather, and there were plenty of other events on in town but overall it was a good experience. If any of this forums readers went along I'd be interested to hear what they have to say. I did take photos and we have a short video clip which I'll post on Youtube next week.

[molders]

Heres a brief clip of the exhibition, I din't get too many of the cases but it gives an idea if how the room was set out on the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WXLylb1UwI

[leigh kitchen]

Interesting stuff, tho' I've just watched it without soundtrack.

Whose is the slouch hat & tunic?

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=36546&hl=

(A totally unconnected thread, but I posted this illustration in it - Post 5 in the above thread - though you obviously knoiw a darned sight more than me about the subject).

A representation of the the scene inside the GPO building, Sackville St, Dublin, 24/4/1916, Michael Collins bottom left.

From "Osprey's Easter Rising 1916, Birth of The Irish Republic".

(Michael McNally, artwork Peter Dennis).

Edited June 16, 2009 by leigh kitchen

[molders]

The hat on the tailor's dummy is Jack Plunkett's cap that he wore in 1916. The tunic/shirt were replicas that we used as display. We hadn't a suitable case to protect the cap so we put it on the dummy and stood it up on the table out of the way.The cap came from Plunkett's great niece and has a bullet mark on the front. I didn't get a great photo of it but he wrote his name on the inside sweat band of the cap.

I've tried to post photos here but they are all too big;400K. Not sure how to compress them/make them suitable for posting, any tips?

[paddywhack]

i went to it and while it was good it was very under advertised and it was expensive enough to get in! about E5,

[molders]

It was under advertised due to the total lack of interest that the national press showed in it, as for expensive to get in point taken but what do you reckon it cost to stage not including the value of the exhibits on show? The fact is that 4 individuals plus the families of the executed leaders gave their time over a bank holiday weekend to put on an exhibition of never before seen items. If you totted up the value of the items on show even in these hard times you'd come up with a figure in the region of a few hundred thousand euro, was ?5 too much to ask to see it all? All concerned with organising the exhibition would have much prefered to stay at home that particular weekend. Its easy to be critical when your a hurler on the ditch.

[paddywhack]

ok play the devils advocate and say this,personnel i thought putting in on a bank holiday weekend might have been a bad idea in the fact that many people would have gone away because of this, also was the Irish medal society asked to pass on the date of the show to its members? also did the organizers contact any of people who organized the shows like the northstar or teachers clubs as they would know many Irish collectors, i thought also that to get people interested flyer's could have been put around places were collectors would have been(even just photocopies),(hell if id known and been asked i would have passed them out myself!) like in antique shops where the northstar organizers have put there flyer's or around colleges where students with an interest in Irish history would see it, how about putting an event notification on facebook? again had i know i would have made the event up on my profile and past it around! (i only found out at about 9 the night before when another mate told me he was going to it!)again if id known i would have sent an important event like that on to my friends who do work for student bodies and know the professors etc! there are plenty of ways to get events known without just relying on the national press!

Edited June 22, 2009 by paddywhack