MELTING PLASTIC HISTORY

Diarmuid Bolger
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Let me be clear from the outset. This is a marvellous series of lectures on Rebel Irish Women run by GPO Witness History, curated by James Curry and introduced by Diarmuid Bolger.

There has been a pile of work done on the place of women in the Irish revolutionary period in recent times - from the un-airbrushing of Elizabeth O'Farrell to a raft of biographies.

Hopefully it's not too late to redress the balance but the absence of these women from accepted history over the years is nothing short of a national scandal.

Felix Larkin

This month's talk was on Grace Gifford. And sure don't we all know who she was? Didn't she marry that Plunkett fellow in his cell the night before he was executed as a signatory of the 1916 proclamation? Pure romance. End of story.

Well, before I let Felix loose on the story, let me just say a word about the title of this blog post.

The history I was taught in school was plastic history, by which I mean embroidered myth. It was essentially propaganda rather than history and it conveniently skited over messy reality to embellish already over-polished glory.

Understandable, up to a point, maybe, given that I was educated by the Christian Brothers and was surrounded by a society imbued with a high level of tolerance for myth, particularly in its religious ethos.

I have drawn attention elsewhere to the "educational" compromise involved in the presentation of Brian Merriman's Midnight Court in the classroom.

Imagine any Christian Brother having to dwell on a pregnant Grace Gifford's marriage to Joe Plunkett in his cell in Kilmainham jail just prior to his execution.

And the same Brother having to deal with a barrage of questions from a potentially rowdy class of boys who had been taught that a girl's primary purpose in life was to ensnare a man, starting now.

So had our hero Joe succumbed to the temptress? Hard to see how either Grace or Joe would have come well out of that encounter.

So to the flesh of the matter.

Grace was essentially an artist. She had attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (incidentally around the same time as Gordon Brewster). She was a pupil of the artist William Orpen who thought highly of her and painted a number of portraits of her. She relied on her artwork for a living and, despite not being well off, she did much pro bono artwork for the revolutionary movement.

Later, she would quote this unpaid work when applying for a military pension, characterising it as income forgone in the cause.

Her family had thrown her out over her dalliance with, and subsequent marriage to, Joe. They did not approve of this unhealthy young man for their daughter, but there were, no doubt, other grounds, such as a mismatch between her parents' unionist convictions and her espousal of the nationalist cause, though she did not endorse violence in pursuit of that cause.

Her parents had a mixed marriage. The boys had been baptised Catholics and the girls Protestants after the fashion/requirements of the time, but all the children had been brought up Protestants. Grace had converted to Catholicism shortly before her marriage.

Anyway, there I was lapping all this up and taking photos like mad when I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Felix had broken into song, and a fine voice he has too:

Oh, Grace, just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They'll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love, I place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won't be time to share our love for we must say good-bye

An apparently well known ballad, immortalising Grace, written by Frank & Seán O'Meara in 1985.

Ruth Dudley Edwards in her book The Seven has a neat little piece of exegesis on this chorus, particularly on the last line.

The coy implication that their relationship was unconsummated is challenged by Gerry's testimony that she had uncontrovertable (sic) evidence that Grace had a miscarriage shortly after Easter while staying at Larkfield.

Gerry was Joe's sister.

Ruth, like Felix, is a myth buster and the online vituperation against her pouring out of hard core Sinn Féin/IRA has to be seen to be believed. So I just thought I'd give her an on-topic mention here to help her keep the faith.

If you're still with me, you can hear a moving version of the song recorded in Kilmainham Gaol for the 2016 centenary celebrations, or an earlier version by the inimitable, and sadly no longer with us, Jim McCann.

Mind you, this is as nothing compared to the impact of Felix's public secular singing debut on the GPO audience. Maith thú..

I can't quite remember, such was my state of shock, but I think the image above is of Felix softly hitting one of the high notes.

I've just realised that I have not so far included any of Grace's own work, so here goes.

This is her sketch of Joe done just a month after his execution.

And this is Douglas Hyde in her inimitable cartoon style.

Nearly finally, back to melting plastic history.

The decade of commemorations has seen a huge outpouring of "revisionist" research looking back on history through evidence-tinted spectacles.

This has exploded a host of plastic myths but it has also revealed the underlying humanity of many of the main players, the real environment in which they were operating and the real choices they faced.

In many cases, far from destroying the mythological character, it has made them more understandable and ordinary. That is not to deny them their extraordinary actions but it does make it easier to relate to them.

A quote from the French historian Pierre Nora, that Felix used in the talk, captures this well: “Memory installs remembrance within the sacred; history, always prosaic, releases it again”.

In the Q&A I asked Felix for his reaction to two recently available sources of evidence: the Bureau of Military History Witness Statements and the Military Pensions Applications.

The Witness Statements were taken many years after the events and clearly needed cross-corroboration to filter out the puff. The Pensions Applications on the other hand were more personal cries from the heart, admittedly with a purpose, but many of them are closer to the events to which they relate.

Felix felt he had got closer to Grace through her pension application.

You can check out Grace's Witness Statement, her Application for a Widow's Pension, and her Application for a Service Pension directly. She was awarded the former pension (£90pa in 1924 rising to £500pa in 1937) but was refused the latter pension.

Talks like this can run into unexpected moments of intimacy and emotion. On this occasion we had a contribution from the floor from a lady who turned out to be Grace's grand niece. She was the grand-daughter of Grace's sister Muriel who married another signatory, Thomas MacDonagh.

James Curry

I don't want to go without congratulating James Curry on his recent doctorate and on his curating of this excellent series of talks. A book in the future perhaps?

I'll leave you with this charming sketch of Grace by William Orpen. You'll have seen a version of it on the cover of Marie O'Neill's book on Grace in the second image in this post.

Family History Day 2015

Greg Young
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Family History Day in the Dublin City Library and Archive (DCLA) in Pearse Street is always a great occasion.

It gives a number of those who are pursuing their own family history, or that of others, an opportunity to present their results to a receptive audience. I have done three family history presentations on these occasions and they are a wonderful way of getting you to organise your material for getting it across to an audience. They also give you the incentive to quality control your research and to pursue further avenues that suggest themselves in the course of preparation.

DCLA, and Máire Kennedy in particular, are to be commended for providing this wonderful service.

And it is a service, not only to those who have results to present, but to others who are not quite there yet, and to those who have not yet started into this branch of research but who might be inspired to do so by days like these. Even for those who are not involved in research, and who don't intend to be, most of the presentations are sheer entertainment and an education in themselves.

Anyway, nuff pontificating and down to this year's event.

Greg Young, who has been in the family and local history area for a good few years now, kicked off the day with a talk on the Smyth family of Dublin who were parasol and umbrella makers. This had been the subject of his thesis for his Certificate in Local History, a course run by NUI Maynooth in collaboration with DCLA. I have commented on another student's output in an earlier blog post.

Greg's presentation was hugely interesting. His pursuit of the Smyth family brought us through the family's highs and lows: a new start up family business; expansion of the business and its extension to many city locations; it's decline and the descent of the family into poverty; the Bishop's religious prejudice which removed the children from their (non-denominational) schooling to be taken into care, an act which further fragmented the family. Make you sad and angry at the same time.

And then there was the product. The umbrella evolved from the parasol, from keeping off the sun to keeping off the rain. They were originally clumsy heavy things but Smyth's steel technology for the ribbed umbrella made them a more viable proposition. They were made on the premises and some of the locations crossed over with my own family's shoemaking traditions, such as at Wood Quay. In those days particular trades grouped in particular streets.

Greg was clearly anxious to give the best presentation possible. This was his first talk of this sort. He needn't have worried. The next step is the book.

Joan Sharkey

He was followed by Joan Sharkey, from Raheny Heritage Society. Joan is an old hand at this and for her contribution on this occasion she told us how she set about filling some apparently intractable gaps in her own family history.

She was chasing up missing Usshers (the family, not the theatrical employees). She took us on a fascinating trail of detective work, squeezing blood out of the stones of boring official records. Many of these were in the USA & Canada where some of the missing family members had ended up. She also relied heavily on the online records (subscription) of the Irish Petty Sessions (or what has now become the District Court). If someone appeared there, never mind what he was up for, she now knew that he existed and where he was at the time. And if, like me, you are still searching for an ordinary decent criminal (ODC) in the family this is clearly the place to go. This sort of stuff is addictive.

Conor Dodd

Conor Dodd, who is now working as a historian with The Glasnevin Trust, brought us up to date on the extensive range of data now available, principally about those buried in Prospect Cemetery in Glasnevin. The service now includes access to a genealogical advisor (part time) and he stressed that, in the normal course, people are only charged for what is found. So the Trust is actually going out of its way to encourage people to draw on its facilities.

He showed us how the various data sources are interrelated and outlined the richness and limits of what is available.

He also reminded us that the Trust is a private venture which is dependent on the income it raises from its activities. This has not stopped it from undertaking, in recent years, a major cleanup/restoration in Glasnevin cemetery in order to bring it back to the state envisaged by its founders. The "Garden Cemetery" concept is coming back in. So if you are contemplating a leisurely stroll of a Sunday afternoon, there's no better place to go. (I have to declare an interest here, I love graveyards - well, most of them).

Anthony J Jordan

Anthony J Jordan gave us the run down on the Yeats family. It was at times hilarious, at others sad, and at yet others outrageous. That WB fella seems to have been an insufferable individual, though Anthony did more or less persuade us that he wrote great poetry.

You will notice the absence of a screen in the above shot. Anthony gave us an old style presentation regaling us with stories for the imagination in which the imagined illustrations went well beyond the capacity of a Powerpoint screen.

He told us it was quite late when he came across the controversy over WB's bones (ie whose bones are in the grave in Drumcliff). He recounted how, when he gave a talk on the subject in Sligo, he was accused of undermining tourism in the county. A bucket collection for a DNA test would seem to me to have been a more appropriate reaction. But there you are. Leave well enough alone and to hell with the begrudgers.

James Curry

The final session was on the Fitzpatrick family and the satirical journal "The Lepracaun" produced over a decade at the beginning of the twentieth century by Thomas Fitzpatrick.

James Curry is co-author of a book on Thomas Fitzpatrick and The Lepracaun which was launched at this very spot just a month ago. Thomas's cartoons were beautifully drawn and took a poke at hypocrisy in high places and the various pecadillos of politicians and other very important people. Thomas's death in 1912 was headline news and the poor, who he always stood up for, were caught up in a combination of grief and pride on that occasion.

James replayed a first class short video about the book which Philip Bromwell made for RTÉ.

Appropriately enough for a family history occasion, James reminded us that Thomas's artistic and cartooning skills have now passed down to a fourth generation.

The Lepracaun

Larry O'Toole
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Old Cartoons are becoming the in thing. In recent times we have had two books on important cartoonists in Ireland: Felix Larkin's Terror and Discord: The Shemus Cartoons in the Freeman’s Journal, 1920–1924 (Ernest Forbes), and James Curry's Artist of the Revolution (Ernest Kavanagh). I have done a talk in NLI on the cartoons of Gordon Brewster. And now we have another book on those of Thomas Fitzpatrick which appeared in his own publication The Lepracaun which ran over the period 1905-1915.

And a fine book it is too. It is beautifully produced with a foreword by Jim FitzPatrick, an account of the life of Thomas Fitzpatrick and his satirical publication, The Lepracaun, and a fine selection of very well presented cartoons with explanatory commentaries setting their context. I have to confess I have only skimmed it so far but am looking forward very much to digging into it.

The book was launched last Thursday evening (19/2/2015) by Larry O'Toole, Deputy Dublin Lord Mayor (above), and you could see his heart was in it. Fitzpatrick's cartoons demolished pretentiousness, lampooned vested interests and cut very quickly to the political chase. A man after Larry's own heart.

Ciarán Wallace

He was followed by Ciarán Wallace, one of the books two authors, who gave us a run down on the cartoons themselves and convinced us that their target was virtually anything that moved. No element of society, and particularly of the body politic was spared.

James Curry

James Curry, the other author, gave us a run down on the life and times of Thomas Fitzpatrick who was a very interesting fellow, well suited to running a satirical magazine and producing its quality cartoons himself.

Jim FitzPatrick

Thomas's grandson, Jim FitzPatrick, told us some more about his grandfather but he was clearly thrilled at the amount of new material revealed by the authors' research. Yes, that is Jim (Che Guevara Poster) FitzPatrick (if you haven't already clicked on his name above) and one of the big thrills for him was to find how much of his own style he may have owed to his grandfather though he had been totally unaware of this until faced with the information and pictures in the book.

Conánn FitzPatrick

Jim said he fairly chucked the cartoon path himself as he was no good at it but told us that the tradition is carried down through his own son Conánn who could toss off a good cartoon at the drop of a hat. The book's frontespiece, based on the cover of the original Lepracaun, and produced by Conánn, looks like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and a modern animation film. This is not surprising as Conánn is a lecturer in digital animation at the University of Ulster.

The book is published as part of Dublin City Council's contribution to the Decade of Commemorations, 1913 - 1923. The series editors are those two stalwarts of the Dublin historical scene: Mary Clarke and Máire Kennedy. The book is available from Four Courts Press

Family History Day 2014

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The Dublin City Library and Archive organises a Family History Day in March and a Local History Day in October every year. The day consists of a number of 45 minute presentations on relevant but not necessarily related topics.

Today (28/3/2014) saw the Family History Day. The conference room was full and the programme packed with goodies.

However, before launching into the talks, it was Máire Kennedy's sad duty to call for a minute of silence for Shane Mac Thomáis who died tragically at the end of last week. You can see a tribute to Shane here.

The programme kicked off with Conor Dodd taking us through the available military records, with particular emphasis on WWI, the centenary commemoration of which starts this year. Conor has been a long time at this and seemed to know the UK National Archive in Kew like the back of his hand.

He was followed by his father, Liam, who took us through the Irish Lights records. Liam has spend some 30 odd years in the service and not only is he familiar with what is available, he was responsible himself for destroying a fair bit of what is not available, and while he now bemoans the destruction of many records including those he destroyed himself, he has a clear conscience as he acted under orders and the objective at the time was simply to free up precious space.

Ricky Shannon took us through her vast family of tanners, many of whom lived in the James's St./Mount Brown area. She told of a small planned family reunion which quickly expanded to take 100 people but which nevetheless proved a great success.

The afternoon kicked off with Jacinta Prunty illustrating the usefulness of maps to the family historian. She showed how many maps have unexpected quantities of genealogical information and made the point that one always needs to walk the walk, even if it is only on paper. The physical/geographical element provided by maps is a vital element in getting the sense of a place and these are becoming increasingly available including in the series of town atlases which is being added to all the time.

Jacinta continues to field questions at the end of a very lively Q&A, while Máire manages the digital transition to the next session.

Padraic Kennedy gave us a whistlestop tour through the Irish military archives of which he is Director. These archives have a vast amount of material which is being steadily digitised. While it is necessary to make an appointment to visit the archives, you get the royal treatment as soon as you go through the door. I can testify to that from my own experience.

And finally we get to Rosie Hackett. Rosie has got the latest bridge over the Liffey named after her following a very intensive online campaign conducted mainly by three young ladies whose enthusiasm for the task sometimes led to supporters of the Rosie campaign rewriting of history on the fly.

Never mind. James Curry demolished the myth and revealed behind it a very worthy and fascinating lady who well deserves to have the bridge named after her. He helped prepare a pamphlet showing the real Rosie Hackett and this will be launched by Dublin City Council on 9 May next.

Meanwhile there will be some tidying up of the records to be done, not least replacing the photo of Lady Gregory on Rosie's current Wikipedia page with one of the real Rosie. The page is here and hopefully by the time you get round to looking it up it will have been straightened out.

Toon Time

The venue was Dublin's National College of Art and Design, now housed in the old distillery in Thomas Street. The subject was "Political Cartoons and the 1913 Lockout".

I turned up a day early and had to have a second coming, and the talk started late due to a spat between a computer and a projector. But it was well worth waiting for.

Gary Granville

The session was introduced by Gary Granville, Professor and Head of the Education Faculty at the college. He remarked that we were fortunate to be in the presence of two historians of political cartoons. Felix Larkin, who chaired the session, had published a book on the Shemus cartoons, and James Curry, who gave the talk, had published one on Ernest Kavanagh, who turned out to be the subject of the talk.

Felix Larkin

Felix, who had also contributed a post on Shemus to the National Library's blog, made some salient points relating to political cartoons in general. He stressed the importance of the cartoon as a means of getting an often subtle point across to readers of the publication in which it appeared. He reminded us that, while today the cartoons need to be accompanied by a fair amount of commentary to be fully appreciated, the original readership, being familiar with the context and controversies of the times, would have grasped their meaning immediately.

James Curry

James took us through the cartoons of Ernest Kavanagh. These cartoons were known through Jim Larkin's paper "The Irish Worker" where they appeared on the front page. In modern history books and articles some of the cartoons are reproduced in the context of the Lockout, for example, but without attribution or explanation. This is because they were simply signed "EK" and Ernest's real identity was not widely known at the time and had been lost sight of since, until James Curry discovered it.

The three main targets of the cartoons were, John Redmond, the Police, and, of course, William Martin Murphy. Murphy was the subject of some vicious cartoons. the most famous of which is reproduced below.

The Vulture of Dartry Hall

Murphy is depicted as a vulture, at his residence at Dartry Hall, looking down on a citizen who has had his head bashed in by the police. This one was published just after the riot in O'Connell Street, where the police had killed some and wounded many of the worker participants in a banned major protest meeting.

My own interest in the area comes from the sudden death of cartoonist Gordon Brewster in my mother's shop in 1946. The National Library of Ireland have recently come into possession of a collection of some 500 of Brewster's excellent cartoons and have digitised them on the internet.

The Library have also digitised the Shemus cartoons.