Born in 1883, the daughter of a Dublin grocer, Helena Molony experienced an unhappy, if comfortable, childhood; orphaned in early life, she did not get on with her stepmother. As in many republican autobiographical narratives, she could identify a moment of political awakening: ‘I was a young girl dreaming about Ireland when I saw and … Read more
Liberty Hall was the first high-rise building in Dublin. Upon its completion in 1964 it was the highest building in the state, bringing a new building type (the tall building) into Dublin’s street- and riverscape; it was hailed as ‘Ireland’s first sky-scraper’ and ‘Dublin’s crystal tower’. The original Liberty Hall, which served as the Northumberland … Read more
Throughout the winter of 1913 the unskilled workers of Dublin were persistently labelled in print by respectable Catholic opinion as ‘scum’, ‘roughs’, ‘degenerates’ and ‘undesirables’. A brief review of provincial nationalist opinion reveals the profound antagonism towards the strikers’ plight and the visceral contempt for their very struggle to survive, indicative of the deep social … Read more
Labour-related violence plagued Dublin from February 1913 to February 1914. During August and September 1913 alone there were fifteen distinct and separate riots, a number of which resulted in large-scale clashes between workers and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP). Twelve occurred on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 August (five and seven respectively). The findings of … Read more
caption id=”attachment_18133″ align=”alignleft” width=”300″] Lar Joye on the weapons that made their mark on the streets of Dublin in 1913.[/caption] ‘Every afternoon a troop of policemen marched in solemn and majestic single file from the College Street police station. At regular intervals, one by one, a policeman stepped sideways from the file, adjusted his belt, … Read more