seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Category Archives: Irish History


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Pope Gregory XIII Commissions the Gregorian Calendar

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Pope Gregory XIII commissions the new Gregorian calendar on February 24, 1582, replacing the Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 45BCE.

The reason for the reform is that the average length of the year in the Julian calendar is too long. It treats each year as 365 days, 6 hours in length, whereas calculations show that the actual mean length of a year is 365 days, 5 hours, and 49 minutes. As a result, the date of the actual vernal equinox, over the course of 13 centuries, has slowly slipped to March 10, while the calculation of the date of Easter still follows the traditional date of March 21.

These calculations are verified by the observations of mathematician and astronomer Christopher Clavius, and the new calendar is instituted when Gregory decrees on February 24, 1582, that the day after Thursday, October 4, 1582 will not be Friday, October 5, but rather Friday, October 15, 1582. The new calendar duly replaces the Julian calendar and has since come into universal use. Because of Gregory’s involvement, the reformed Julian calendar comes to be known as the Gregorian calendar.

The switchover is bitterly opposed by much of the populace, who fear it is an attempt by landlords to cheat them out of a week and a half of rent. However, the Catholic countries of Spain, Portugal, Poland, and Italy comply almost immediately. France, some states of the Dutch Republic, and various Catholic states in Germany and Switzerland follow suit within a year or two, and Hungary follows in 1587.

More than a century passes before Protestant Europe accepts the new calendar. Denmark, the remaining states of the Dutch Republic, and the Protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire and Switzerland adopt the Gregorian calendar in 1700–1701. Ireland and Great Britain, along with its American colonies, reform in 1752, where Wednesday, September 2, 1752 is immediately followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752. They are joined by the last Protestant holdout, Sweden, on March 1, 1753.

The Gregorian calendar is not accepted in eastern Christendom for several hundred years, and then only as the civil calendar. The Gregorian Calendar is instituted in Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Romania accepts it in 1919 and is followed by Turkey in 1923. The last Orthodox country to accept the calendar is Greece, also in 1923.


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Roger Casement’s Remains Returned to the Republic of Ireland

roger-casement

Irish patriot Roger Casement‘s body is returned to Ireland from the United Kingdom on February 23, 1965, forty-nine years after his execution for treason.

In October 1914, Roger Casement sails for Germany where he spends most of his time seeking to recruit an Irish Brigade from among more than 2,000 Irish prisoners-of-war taken in the early months of World War I and held in the prison camp of Limburg an der Lahn. His plan is that they will be trained to fight against Britain in the cause of Irish independence.

In April 1916, Germany offers the Irish 20,000 Mosin–Nagant 1891 rifles, ten machine guns and accompanying ammunition, but no German officers. It is a fraction of the quantity of arms that Casement has hoped. Casement does not learn of the Easter Rising until after the plan is fully developed. The German weapons never land in Ireland as the Royal Navy intercepts the ship transporting them.

In the early hours of April 21, 1916, three days before the beginning of the rising, Casement is taken by a German submarine and is put ashore at Banna Strand in Tralee Bay, County Kerry. Suffering from a recurrence of malaria and too weak to travel, he is discovered at McKenna’s Fort in Rathoneen, Ardfert, and arrested on charges of treason, sabotage, and espionage against the Crown. He is imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Casement’s trial for treason is highly publicized and he is ultimately convicted and sentenced to be hanged. He unsuccessfully appeals the conviction and death sentence. Among the many people who plead for clemency are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W. B. Yeats, and George Bernard Shaw.

On the day of his execution, Casement is again received into the Catholic Church at his request. He is attended by two Irish Catholic priests, Dean Timothy Ring and Father James Carey, from the East London parish of St. Mary and St. Michael’s. Casement is hanged at Pentonville Prison in London on August 3, 1916. His body is buried in quicklime in the prison cemetery at the rear of the prison.

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During the decades after his execution, many formal requests for repatriation of Casement’s remains are refused by the U.K. government. Finally, February 23, 1965, Casement’s remains are repatriated to the Republic of Ireland. Casement’s last wish, to be buried at Murlough Bay on the North Antrim coast, in what is now Northern Ireland, may never be satisfied as U.K. Prime Minister Harold Wilson‘s government releases the remains only on condition that they cannot be brought into Northern Ireland, as “the government feared that a reburial there could provoke Catholic celebrations and Protestant reactions.”

Casement’s remains lay in state at Arbour Hill in Dublin for five days, during which time an estimated half a million people file past his coffin. After a state funeral on March 1, the remains are buried with full military honours in the Republican plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, with other militant republican heroes. The President of the Republic of Ireland, Éamon de Valera, who is in his mid-eighties and the last surviving leader of the Easter Rising, defies the advice of his doctors and attends the ceremony, along with an estimated 30,000 others.


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First Burial at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

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The first burial takes place at Glasnevin Cemetery in Glasnevin, Dublin, on February 22, 1832.

Prior to the establishment of Glasnevin Cemetery, Irish Catholics have no cemeteries of their own in which to bury their dead. The repressive Penal Laws of the eighteenth-century place heavy restrictions on the public performance of Catholic services, forcing Catholics to conduct a limited version of their own funeral services in Protestant churchyards or graveyards. This situation continues until an incident at a funeral held at St. Kevin’s Churchyard in 1823 provokes public outcry when a Protestant sexton reprimands a Catholic priest for proceeding to perform a limited version of a funeral mass. The outcry prompts Daniel O’Connell, champion of Catholic rights, to launch a campaign and prepare a legal opinion proving that there is actually no law forbidding praying for a dead Catholic in a graveyard. O’Connell pushes for the opening of a burial ground in which both Irish Catholics and Protestants can give their dead a dignified burial.

Glasnevin Cemetery is consecrated and opened to the public for the first time on February 21, 1832. The first burial, that of eleven-year-old Michael Carey from Francis Street in Dublin, takes place on the following day in a section of the cemetery known as Curran’s Square. The cemetery is initially known as Prospect Cemetery, a name chosen from the townland of Prospect, which surrounds the cemetery lands.

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Originally covering nine acres of ground, the area of the cemetery has now grown to approximately 124 acres and is the final resting place of some 1.5 million people. The cemetery consists of two parts. The main part, with its trademark high walls and watchtowers, is located on one side of the road from Finglas to the city centre, while the other part, called St. Paul’s, is located across the road and beyond a green space, between two railway lines.

Glasnevin is one of the few cemeteries that allows stillborn babies to be buried in consecrated ground and contains an area called the Angels Plot for that purpose. In 1982, a crematorium is constructed within the cemetery grounds by Glasnevin Trust and has since been used for people of various religious denominations who wish to be cremated.

Glasnevin contains historically notable monuments and the graves of many of Ireland’s most prominent national figures. These include the graves of Daniel O’Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Collins (pictured at right), Éamon de Valera, Arthur Griffith, Maud Gonne, Kevin Barry, Roger Casement, Constance Markievicz, Pádraig Ó Domhnaill, Seán MacBride, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Frank Duff, Brendan Behan, Christy Brown, and Luke Kelly of the Dubliners.

Glasnevin Cemetery remains under the care of the Dublin Cemeteries Committee and the development, expansion, and refurbishment of the cemetery is an ongoing task.

The Catholic Mass is celebrated by members of the parish clergy every Sunday at 9:45 AM. An annual blessing of the graves takes place each summer as it has since the founding of the cemetery in 1832.


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An Garda Síochána na h-Eireann is Formed

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An Garda Síochána na h-Eireann (Guardians of the Peace of Ireland), the police force of Ireland more commonly referred to as the Gardaí or “the guards,” is formed on February 21, 1922. The service, originally named the Civic Guard and headquartered in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish government.

The Civic Guard is formed by the Provisional Government in February 1922 to take over the responsibility of policing the fledgling Irish Free State. It replaces the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Irish Republican Police of 1919–22. In August 1922, the force accompanies Michael Collins when he meets the Lord Lieutenant in Dublin Castle.

The Garda Síochána (Temporary Provisions) Act 1923, enacted after the creation of the Irish Free State on August 8, 1923, provides for the creation of “a force of police to be called and known as ‘The Garda Síochána.'” Under section 22, the Civic Guard are deemed to have been established under and are to be governed by the Act. The law therefore effectively renames the existing force.

While most recruits to the Garda come from the ranks of the Irish Republican Army, which had fought against the RIC, about one hundred ex-RIC men become part of the new force. Problems become apparent when some recruits do not conceal their dislike of the ex-RIC instructors and refused to salute them. On May 15, 1922, over 1,200 recruits break ranks during Morning Parade, seize the armoury, and take over the Kildare Depot. Negotiations between the mutineers and the Provisional Government of Ireland over control of the force lasts seven weeks, during which time the Irish Civil War has begun. Commissioner Michael Staines resigns in September and is replaced by Eoin O’Duffy.

During the Irish Civil War, the new Free State sets up the Criminal Investigation Department as an armed, plain-clothed, counter-insurgency unit. It is disbanded after the end of the war in October 1923 and elements of it are absorbed into the Dublin Metropolitan Police, which was founded in 1836.

In Dublin, policing remains the responsibility of the Dublin Metropolitan Police until it merges with the Garda Síochána in 1925. Since then the Garda has been the only civil police force in the state now known as Ireland. Other police forces with limited powers are the Military Police within the Irish Defence Forces, the Airport Police Service, and Dublin Port and Dún Laoghaire Harbour police forces.

The Garda medal of honour, the Scott Medal, An Garda Síochána’s highest honour, is named after Colonel Walter Scott, the American philanthropist that endowed the fund for the original medals.


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Birth of James Gandon, Influential Irish Architect

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James Gandon, possibly the most influential architect in Irish history, is born in New Bond Street, London, on February 20, 1743. His better known works include The Custom House, the Four Courts, King’s Inns in Dublin, and Emo Court in County Laois.

Gandon is the only son of Peter Gandon, a gunmaker, and Jane Burchall. He is educated at Shipley’s Drawing Academy where he studies the classics, mathematics, arts, and architecture. Upon leaving the drawing academy he is articled to study architecture in the office of Sir William Chambers. Chambers’s palladian and neoclassical concepts greatly influence the young Gandon.

In 1765, Gandon leaves William Chambers to begin practice on his own. His practice always remains small but is successful. His first commission is on Sir Samuel Hellier’s estate at The Wodehouse, near Wombourne. Around 1769 he enters an architectural competition to design the new Royal Exchange in Dublin. The plan submitted by Thomas Cooley is eventually chosen but Gandon’s design comes in second and brings him to the attention of the politicians who are overseeing the large-scale redevelopment of Dublin.

During the following years in England, Gandon is responsible for the design of the County Hall in Nottingham. Between 1769 and 1771, he collaborates with John Woolfe on two additional volumes of Vitruvius Britannicus, a book of plans and drawings of Palladian revival buildings by such architects as Inigo Jones and Colen Campbell. During his English career he is awarded the Gold medal for architecture by the Royal Academy, London in 1768.

In 1781, at the age of 38, Gandon accepts an invitation to Ireland from Lord Carlow and John Beresford, the Revenue Commissioner for Ireland, to supervise the construction of the new Custom House in Dublin. The original architect on that project, Thomas Cooley, had died and Gandon is chosen to assume complete control. The Irish people are so opposed to the Custom House and its associated taxes that Beresford has to smuggle Gandon into the country and keeps him hidden in his own home for the first three months. The project is eventually completed at a cost of £200,000, an enormous sum at the time.

This commission proves to be the turning point in Gandon’s career and Dublin is to become Gandon’s home for the remainder of his life. The newly formed Wide Streets Commission employs Gandon to design a new aristocratic enclave in the vicinity of Mountjoy Square and Gardiner Street. Gandon also designs Carlisle Bridge, now O’Connell Bridge, over the River Liffey to join the north and south areas of the city. In 1786, he is charged with completing the Four Courts in 1786, which is also originally a Thomas Cooley project.

The success of Gandon’s designs and commissions are not reflected in personal popularity as he attracts huge criticism from his enemies. The taxation symbolised by the Custom House is to taint the appreciation of his work throughout his lifetime. It is even claimed that Gandon designs buildings to boost his self-esteem.

In 1798, revolution breaks out on the streets of Ireland and Gandon, an unpopular figure, hurriedly flees to London. Upon returning to Dublin he finds a much changed city. James Gandon dies in 1823 at his home in Lucan, County Dublin, having spent forty-two years in the city. He is buried in the church-yard of Drumcondra Church.


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Ireland’s First Ever Win in International Soccer

ifa-original-badgeIreland wins its first ever match in international soccer on February 19, 1887, beating Wales 4-1 in Belfast. Prior to 1921 and the partition of the country, all of Ireland is represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association (IFA).

On February 18, 1882, fifteen months after the founding of the Irish FA, Ireland makes its international debut against England, losing 13–0 in a friendly played at Bloomfield in Belfast. This remains the largest ever defeat for the team, and is also England’s largest winning margin.

Ireland competes in the inaugural British Home Championship in 1884 and loses all three games. Ireland finally wins its first game on February 19, 1887, with a 4–1 win over Wales in Belfast. Between their 1882 debut and this game, the Ireland team has a run of 14 defeats and 1 draw, the longest run without a win in the 1800s. Despite the end of the losing streak, heavy defeats continue. In March 1888 they lose 11–0 to Wales and 10–2 to Scotland. Further heavy defeats come in March 1890 when they lose 9–1 to England, in 1899 when they lose 13–2 to England, and in February 1901 when they lose 11–0 to Scotland.

Ireland is partitioned into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland in 1920. Southern Ireland gains independence in 1922 as the Irish Free State, later to become a republic under the name of Ireland. Amid these political upheavals, a rival football association, the Football Association of Ireland, emerges in Dublin in 1921 and organises a separate league and international team. In 1923, at a time when the home nations have withdrawn from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the FAI is recognised by FIFA as the governing body of the Irish Free State on the condition that it changes its name to the Football Association of the Irish Free State. The IFA continues to organise its national team on an all-Ireland basis.

Between 1928 and 1946 the IFA is not affiliated to FIFA and the two Ireland teams co-exist, never competing in the same competition. However, on March 8, 1950, in a 0–0 draw with Wales at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham, North Wales in a World Cup qualifier, the IFA fields a team that includes four players who were born in the Irish Free State. All four players have previously played for the FAI in their qualifiers and as a result have played for two different associations in the same FIFA World Cup tournament.

After complaints from the FAI, FIFA intervenes and restricts players’ eligibility based on the political border. In 1953, FIFA rules that neither team can be referred to as Ireland, decreeing that the FAI team officially be designated as the Republic of Ireland, while the IFA team is to become Northern Ireland.


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Death of Saint Colmán, Bishop of Lindisfarne

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Colmán of Lindisfarne, also known as Saint Colmán, the Bishop of Lindisfarne from 661 until 664, dies on February 18, 675, of natural causes on the island of Inishbofin.

Colman is believed to have been born in Connacht, in the west of Ireland and receives his education on Iona. He is likely a nobleman of Canmaicne. He succeeds Aidan and Finan as bishop of Lindisfarne but resigns the Bishopric of Lindisfarne after the Synod of Whitby called by King Oswiu of Northumbria decides to calculate Easter using the method of the First Ecumenical Council instead of his preferred Celtic method.

Later tradition states that between the years 665 and 667 St. Colman founds several churches in Scotland before returning to Iona, but there are no seventh-century records to validate such activity by him. From Iona he sails for Ireland, settling at Inishbofin in 668 where he founds a monastery. When Colman comes to Mayo he brings with him half the relics of Lindisfarne, including bones of St. Aidan, and a part of the true cross which is reputed to be in Mayo Abbey until the Reformation in 1537, when it vanishes.

The Saxon monks are industrious and, during spring and summer, they till the land and grow the corn necessary for the survival of the community. Meanwhile, the Irish visit their kinsfolk on the mainland, returning to the island in winter where they help to consume the fruits of the Saxons’ labours. This situation inevitably leads to tensions within the community and disputes soon arise between the Saxon and Irish monks. Colman brings his Saxon followers onto the mainland and founds a monastery for them at “Magh Eó” – the Plain of Yew Trees, subsequently known as “Mayo of the Saxons.”

Colman’s last days are spent on the island of Inishbofin, where he dies in 675. His feast is celebrated on August 8.


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Birth of Academy Award Winning Actress Brenda Fricker

(Newscom TagID: mrpphotos209322) [Photo via Newscom]

Brenda Fricker, Irish actress of theatre, film, and television, is born in Dublin on February 17, 1945. In 1989, she becomes the first Irish actress to win an Oscar, earning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for My Left Foot.

In her teens, Fricker aspires to follow her parents’ footsteps into journalism. Before becoming an actress, she is assistant to the art editor of The Irish Times, with hopes to become a reporter. At age 19, she becomes an actress “by chance,” as her feature film career begins with a small uncredited part in the 1964 film Of Human Bondage, based on the 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. She also appears in Tolka Row, Ireland’s first ever soap opera.

One of Fricker’s first TV roles is as staff nurse Maloney in Coronation Street, debuting on January 10, 1977. Fricker comes to wider public attention in the United Kingdom in another nursing role, as Megan Roach in the BBC One television drama series Casualty, appearing in 65 episodes. After making cameo appearances in three additional episodes, Fricker’s final appearance as Megan is in August 2010, when her character takes a lethal cocktail of drugs to end her life.

Fricker finds international acclaim after she wins the 1989 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Christy Brown‘s mother in My Left Foot, becoming the first Irish actress to win an Oscar. The film is a triumph for Irish film making. Daniel Day-Lewis wins best actor for his portrayal of the disabled Brown while director Jim Sheridan receives numerous Best Director nominations at various film festivals.

She rejoins  Sheridan to make the 1990 film The Field, starring alongside Richard Harris as Maggie McCabe. She continues her television work during this period, starring in the Australian-produced short series Brides of Christ (1991). She then co-stars in the 1992 TV miniseries Seekers alongside Josette Simon and produced by Sarah Lawson.

Buoyed by her Oscar win, Fricker goes on to appear in several high profile Hollywood films, most notably in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The following year she portrays May Mackenzie in So I Married an Axe Murderer, and next portrayed Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character’s motherly caretaker Maggie in Angels in the Outfield. One of her last Hollywood film roles comes with A Time to Kill, as Ethel Twitty, loyal secretary to Matthew McConaughey‘s Jake Brigance. She then focuses almost exclusively on film and television work in Canada and the British Isles.

In July 2014, Fricker tentatively retires from acting. Previously married to director Barry Davies, Fricker currently lives in the Liberties in Dublin.


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The 1932 Irish General Election

1932-general-electionAn Irish general election is held on February 16, 1932, just over two weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on January 29. The general election takes place in 30 parliamentary constituencies throughout the Irish Free State for 153 seats in the lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann. The 1932 general election is one of the most important general elections held in Ireland in the 20th Century, resulting in the formation of the first Fianna Fáil government. Fianna Fáil becomes the largest party and would continue to be the largest party in Dáil Éireann and at every general election until 2011.

Cumann na nGaedheal fights the general election on its record of providing ten years of stable government. The party brings stability following the chaos of the Irish Civil War and provides honest government. However, by 1932 support of the government is wearing thin, particularly since the party has no solution to the collapse in trade which follows the depression of the early 1930s. Instead of offering new policies the party believes that its record in government will be enough to retain power. Cumann na nGaedheal also employs “red scare” tactics, describing Fianna Fáil as communists and likening Éamon de Valera to Joseph Stalin.

In comparison, Fianna Fáil has an elaborate election programme designed to appeal to a wide section of the electorate. It plays down its republicanism to avoid alarm but provides very popular social and economic policies. The party promises to free Irish Republican Army (IRA) prisoners, abolish the Oath of allegiance, and reduce the powers of the Governor-General and the Senate. It also promises the introduction of protectionist policies, industrial development, self-sufficiency, and improvements in housing and social security benefits.

The election campaign between the two ideologically opposed parties is reasonably peaceful. However, during the campaign the government prosecutes de Valera’s newly established newspaper, The Irish Press. The editor is also brought before a military tribunal. This is seen by many as a major blunder and a serious infringement on the belief of freedom of speech. The “red scare” tactics also seemed to backfire on the government, who seem to have little else to offer the electorate.

When the results are known Fianna Fáil is still 5 seats short of an overall majority but looks like the only party capable of forming a government. Discussions get underway immediately after the election and an agreement is reached in which the Labour Party would support Fianna Fáil. The party now has the necessary votes to form a minority government.

On March 9, 1932, the first change of government in the Irish Free State takes place. Similar to when the party first enters the Dáil in 1927, a number of Fianna Fáil Teachtaí Dála (TDs) have guns in their pockets. However, the feared coup d’état does not take place. W. T. Cosgrave is determined to adhere to the principles of democracy that he has practised while in government. Likewise, the army, Garda Síochána, and the civil service all accept the change of government, despite the fact that they will now be taking orders from men who had been their enemies less than ten years previously. After a brief and uneventful meeting in the Dáil chamber, Éamon de Valera is appointed President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State by the Governor-General, James McNeill, who has come to Leinster House to make the appointment rather than require de Valera travel to the Viceregal Lodge, formerly a symbol of British rule. Fianna Fáil, the party most closely identified with opposing the existence of the state ten years earlier, is now the party of government. The 1932 general election is the beginning of a sixteen-year period in government for Fianna Fáil.


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Laying of the Foundation Stone of Nelson Pillar

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Construction of Nelson Pillar, a large granite pillar topped by a statue of Horatio Nelson in the middle of O’Connell Street (formerly Sackville Street) in Dublin, begins with the laying of the foundation stone on February 15, 1808, by the Lord Lieutenant the Duke of Richmond.

News of Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar reaches Dublin on November 8, 1805, and is greeted with boisterous celebrations in the streets, alongside mourning for the death of the hero. Within a month the Lord Mayor of Dublin, James Vance, calls a meeting of nobility, clergy, bankers, merchants, and citizens to plan a monument in Nelson’s memory, which is to be funded by public subscription.

The duke, dressed in a general’s uniform and accompanied by the Duchess in deep mourning for the dead hero, arrive at the foundation stone laying in a state coach drawn by six horses. The procession from Dublin Castle to the site includes Horse Yeomanry and Foot Yeomanry, sailors, officers of the Army and the Navy, subscribers, the committee, the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, the Lord Mayor, the Common Council, sheriffs, aldermen, and peers according to their degrees.

The pillar is a Doric column that rises 121 feet from the ground and is topped by a 13-foot-tall statue of Nelson carved in Portland stone, giving it a total height of 134 feet, some 35 feet shorter than Nelson’s Column in London. The diameter of the column is 13 feet at the bottom and 10 feet at the top. All of the outer and visible parts of the pillar are granite from the quarry of Goldenhill, Manor Kilbride, County Wicklow. The interior is black limestone.

The pillar is completed by August 1809 and the statue of Nelson is hoisted into place. The statue is the work of Thomas Kirk, a young Cork-born sculptor then at the beginning of a successful career. The statue adds £630 to the cost of the pillar, which totals almost £7,000.

The monument is opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, October 21, 1809, the fourth anniversary of the battle. It offers the citizens of Dublin an unprecedented perspective on their city. For the payment of ten pence, they can climb the 168 steps of the inner stone staircase to the viewing platform.

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On October 29, 1955, a group of University College Dublin students lock themselves inside the pillar and try to melt the statue with flame throwers. From the top they hang a poster of Kevin Barry, a Dublin Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who is executed by the British during the Irish War of Independence. Gardaí force their way inside with sledgehammers. They take the students’ names and addresses and bring them downstairs. Rather than arrest the students, the Gardaí merely confiscate their equipment and tell everyone to leave quietly. None are ever charged.

At 1:32 AM on March 8, 1966, a bomb destroys the upper half of the pillar, throwing the statue of Nelson into the street. The bomb is planted by a group of former Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers in what is believed to mark the commemoration the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Six days after the original damage, on the morning of Monday, March 14, 1966, Irish Army engineers blow up the rest of the pillar after judging the structure to be too unsafe to restore. This planned demolition causes more damage on O’Connell Street than the original blast, breaking many windows.

The rubble from the monument is taken to the East Wall dump and the lettering from the plinth is moved to the gardens of Butler House, Kilkenny.