Introduction (Learning Resources)

Family Research 2016 Learning Resources: Introduction

This project encourages students to create a family tree which takes them back to life as experienced by their ancestors in 1916. In this way students can gain an understanding of the social and political conditions of the period.

Intended as a ‘voyage of discovery’ there are no rigid rules. The subject of the project can come from the student’s own family, or a person from their own locality. The project may be attempted by individual students or a group of students. Check the full briefing notes on Scoilnet 1916 Ancestry Project.

Students at all levels, primary to senior post-primary may attempt the research at appropriate difficulty levels. This is entirely at the discretion of the class teacher.

Students whose families originally came from outside of Ireland may wish to trace their family’s roots back to where they were living in 1916.

Case Studies

Two case studies illustrate a possible approach to the relevant online archives. Only sources available in the key archives are used. Each case study investigates a lesser known aspect or event in the lives of Seán Mac Diarmada and Seán Lemass in 1916.

Seán Lemass and Seán Mac Diarmada

Both were in the GPO during Easter Week, but apart from that shared experience, their paths to the Rising were very different: Lemass, an unknown 16 year old, had been a member of the Volunteers for only fifteen months, while Mac Diarmada was one of the key planners of the Rising and a well-known figure in Nationalist Ireland.

After the Rising, their fate was equally very different: Lemass was quickly released from detention because of his youth and he would eventually become Taoiseach of the independent state. Mac Diarmada was to die by firing squad within a fortnight of the surrender of the rebels.

Starting the Project

Locate and gather the evidence, consulting the core websites for family research, beginning with the relevant Church, Civil and Census records below. If your subject was politically involved, search the records in Bureau of Military History and Military Service Pensions collections.

Offline, gather any information in family or locality about your subject. Scan any photographs or medals, or photograph buildings or artefacts which might illustrate social conditions in 1916.

Browse the additional online resources listed below for a variety of relevant links, to interactive maps, video and audio clips and historic photographs.

Templates: Family Tree – Transcription form for Census 1901 and 1911; Census form advice sheet.
Log, organise and analyse your sources. Make a list of the sources you have consulted and state in what way you have found a source useful.

Template: Record sheet.
Present and publish. Once the project is completed in your chosen format, upload to Scoilnet 1916 Ancestry Project.

Templates

A number of downloadable templates are provided as a guide to the different archives and sources. These include:

Online Resources

Key Archives

1. Irish Genealogy.ie

A portal site for key Church and Civil records. Fully searchable under multiple headings: ‘person’, ‘location’, ‘date’.

2. The National Archives

A portal repository for the essential records of this period, including:

3. Bureau of Military History

Witness statements, contemporary documents and a small collection of images and audio recordings, relating to 1916 and the War of Independence. Fully searchable under name and location. Covers the period 1913 – 1921. Guide to the collection here.

4. Military Archives

Military Service Pensions Collection: files belonging to individuals with recognised service during 1916, the War of Independence and the Civil War, who applied for pensions. Complements the Bureau of Military collection. Fully searchable.

Rising in Transition: a collection of 1916 themed lesson plans for transition year students.

Additional Online Resources

5. The National Library

An online document-based exhibition, entitled The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives, affords a comprehensive historical overview of the Rising.

Digital photographic collection which illustrates social conditions in Ireland from the late 19th century.

6. Newspapers

Includes both national and local papers:

Irish Times Archives (available free of charge through schools and within public libraries in Ireland)
Irish Newspaper Archives (available free of charge within public libraries in Ireland)

7. Dictionary of Irish Biography

Available free of charge to students through Scoilnet and within libraries in Ireland.

8. RTÉ: Century Ireland

An online historical newspaper which provides a wealth of visual, archival and contextual material recounting events in Irish life 100 years ago.

9. RTÉ Archives

Unique archive of film and radio interviews with those who were key witnesses to the events of the Rising and War of Independence.

They Remember 1916: Seven radio interviews, recorded in 1946 with individuals who had personal recollections of the 1916 Rising.

The Survivors: Five TV interviews, recorded in 1964 but never previously broadcast, with individuals who had taken part in the Easter Rising and the War of Independence.

They Were There: Fifty witness accounts of 1916 events on interactive map. An interactive map of revolutionary Dublin with accompanying accounts from individuals who witnessed events taking place on the streets.

Golden Jubilee: Footage from events around the country during the commemorations in 1966.

10. Google Tour of the 1916 Rising

A virtual tour through the key sites and events of the rebellion.

11. The Irish Revolution

A collaborative online project between University College Cork and the Irish Examiner, which highlights in particular many of the events in the South.

12. Dublin City Library

Holds some unique items which casts a different light on the events of Easter week including the 1916 Rising Dublin Fire Brigade Logbook.

13. Leinster House Historical Talks

A series of short lectures from Leinster House on topics relevant to 1916, including Women and 1916.

14. The Irish Flag

An educational site, dealing with the history of the tricolour which was raised at the GPO during Easter week.

15. TCD: Changed Utterly: Ireland and the Easter Rising

Varied collection of diaries, photos, letters and pamphlets drawn from the Library of TCD.

16. UCD: The History Hub

A series of podcasts, documents and research papers relating to the 1916 Rising.

17. Maynooth: The Letters of 1916

An online collection of letters about Ireland written around the time of the Easter Rising. See Rising in Transition.

Seán Mac Diarmada (Learning Resources)

Research Profile: Seán Mac Diarmada

Public and private life: discovery in the archives.

The public man in 1916: an introduction

This plaque placed at the site of Seán Mac Diarmada’s office at No. 12. D’Olier Street, Dublin, highlights his roles: as secretary of the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB); as manager of Irish Freedom (the paper of the IRB) and Nationality (edited by Arthur Griffith); and as signatory of the Proclamation in 1916. He was executed on 12th May 1916.

His name follows that of Tom Clarke on the Proclamation of 1916. Together, they are regarded as the key architects of the Rising.

Photo: Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

This photograph shows the 60 year old Tom Clarke at the back with John Daly, Fenian, uncle of Kathleen Clarke and Ned Daly (also executed in 1916) and the young bearded Seán Mac Diarmada seated in the front. Taken in 1915, at the request of Seán Mac Diarmada.

These represent the well-known and public aspects of Mac Diarmada. However, by examining the oral accounts, official reports and private letters, it is now possible to gain a more intimate view of the private man and his world.

The Rising: behind the scenes

Good Friday 1916 in the Red Bank restaurant, D’Olier Street, Dublin

Through the evidence in the Bureau of Military History witness statements of his immediate circle, we can follow him across the street from his office at No. 12 D’Olier Street and into the Red Bank restaurant at No. 19 – 20, where several of the diners on that fateful day were absorbed in putting into place the plans which were meant to shape the events of the coming week.

In the extract below, Diarmuid Lynch describes the pivotal moment when Mac Diarmada gave him the plans of each building to be seized by the rebels and his handing on of the sketch of the Four Courts to Ned Daly:

Statement of Diarmuid Lynch: WS 4, p25, par.2
Statement of Diarmuid Lynch: WS 4, p25, par.2

Diarmuid Lynch from Cork served in the GPO garrison. He was sentenced to death, but this was changed to 10 years penal servitude as he had American citizenship.
Ned (Edward) Daly, from Limerick occupied the Four Courts on Easter Monday. He was executed on 4^th May in Kilmainham.
Piaras Béaslaí, from Liverpool was second in command to Ned Daly in the Four Courts. He was sentenced to five years penal servitude.

James Ryan describes Mac Diarmada’s request to him to carry a secret order that evening to Tomás Mac Curtain, one of the Volunteer leaders in Cork.

Statement of James Ryan: WS 70, p1, par.1
Statement of James Ryan: WS 70, p1, par.1

James Ryan from Wexford served as medical officer in the GPO.

Min Ryan (Mary Josephine Mulcahy) captures the tension and sense of mystery in the dining room that afternoon:

Statement of Mary Josephine Mulcahy: WS 399, p7, par. 2
Statement of Mary Josephine Mulcahy: WS 399, p7, par. 2

Min Ryan (Mary Josephine Mulcahy), from Wexford, sister to James Ryan. She served in the GPO and carried dispatches in and out of the building for Pearse and the O’Rahilly.
Gearóid O’Sullivan, from Cork. He is credited with raising the tricolour over the GPO. He was interned in Frongoch, Wales.

Mac Diarmada’s social life: new perspectives

If D’Olier Street was the axis of his political life, the witness statements also offer glimpses of his social life.

Around Grafton Street

Coming from the Volunteer offices at No. 2 Dawson Street he would drop into the Bailey in Duke Street for a smoke and a drink and meet like-minded friends, such as Jack Morrow, the artist, or Piaras Béaslaí, the journalist, for a chat. The Ryan sisters met him in nearby Bewleys for a coffee almost on a daily basis.

Ranelagh

He was a frequent visitor to the Ryan home, at 19 Ranelagh Road. Mary Kate (Kit) Ryan was a lecturer in French in UCD, while Min taught night classes in French and German in the Rathmines Commercial College (full biographical details: online version Dictionary of Irish Biography).

Both sisters were very involved in the Sinn Féin movement and were members of other radical groups.

Here in No. 19, university students and lecturers, journalists, writers and political activists would gather on Sunday nights. According to Min, it was all very light-hearted: good conversation, singing and recitations of patriotic poems. Tea and buns were served throughout the night.

One of those visitors was Monsignor Pádraig de Brún, Professor of Mathematics in Maynooth, who considered Mac Diarmada as ‘very well read, especially in history, and with a fair grasp of the Irish language’.

Henry Street

During the week, he was known to walk the short distance from D’Olier Street down Sackville Street (O’Connell Street), passing the GPO, turning into Henry Street to the restaurant, The Irish Farm Produce Company, which was a few doors down at No. 21.

Owned by Jennie Wyse Power, (nationalist, feminist, a founding member of Cumann na mBan) and her husband John, the restaurant was a well-known meeting place for Arthur Griffith and other leading members of Sinn Féin. According to Nancy Wyse Power (Jennie’s daughter), Mac Diarmada was ‘constantly there’. She also states the Proclamation was signed in a private room upstairs, on the evening of Wednesday 19^th April.

No. 5 Lower Abbey Street

The Ship hotel and tavern was owned by Alderman John Davin. He is described by Michael Noyk as ‘a good nationalist and [the tavern] was a rendezvous for all types of Irish separatists’.

Mac Diarmada went there regularly for lunch and was seen there on Holy Saturday evening. Noyk, in his statement, describes going in there that night and sensing an atmosphere of ‘unwonted excitement’. ‘Men who frequented the place and who normally appeared to be joking and laughing were now all engaged in serious conversations’.

Photos: Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

Personal traits and traumas

Described in his early life as energetic, athletic and strong, he tirelessly toured the country as a Sinn Féin organiser. All that changed in the Autumn of 1911 when he contracted a form of polio which left him with a ‘crippled left leg’ and other infirmities. When he left hospital after four months, he was described as ‘unrecognisable’. From then on, he could only walk with the aid of a stick.

Despite this, he is invariably described in witness statements as ‘always in good humour’, ‘light-hearted’, ‘fond of a joke’ ‘sociable’, ‘outgoing’. Both men and women refer to him as ‘lovable’, noting his good looks, in particular ‘his kindly eyes’, and ‘his broad smile’. Some likened him to Michael Collins in his infectious enthusiasm.

The DBC Luncheon and Tea Rooms, Sackville Street

Bob Brennan from Wexford paints a vivid picture of meeting him in another restaurant, the DBC Luncheon Rooms, 5 – 6 Sackville Street (O’Connell Street) on the corner with Abbey Street. This was yet another place where the Ryan sisters and other young nationalists like Seán T O’Kelly and Mac Diarmada socialised.

Statement of Robert Brennan: WS 779, p23, par.2
Statement of Robert Brennan: WS 779, p23, par.2

Official ‘Diary’: Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), (Movement of Extremists files)

The detective unit of the DMP kept a daily diary of a different kind, carefully tracking the comings and goings of John McDermott (they used the English version of his name) and the other ‘suspects’ as they went about their business, e.g.

1915 December 23rd	‘With Thomas J Clarke at his shop in 75a Parnell Street... Joseph Murray, John McDermott and John McGarry for half an hour, between 8-9 p.m’. [both Murray and McGarry were IRB members who later served in the GPO]
1915 December 24th	‘Thomas J Clarke and John Mc Dermott left Kingsbridge Station by 6.15 train en route to Limerick. RIC informed...’

Photo: Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

Image: www.myonlinemuseum.org

Part 1: Social & personal – the early years

The information in Census forms for 1901 and 1911 uncovers details and influences of his early life which point to the man whom we encounter in 1916.

Mac Diarmada grew up in this house very similar to those of his neighbours in the townland of Laghty Barr. In the Census forms, they are all described as farmers and many are elderly. The MacDermotts have the largest and youngest family.

Image: The National Archives of Ireland, Census of Ireland 1901

Source 1

The 1901 Census, Lagthy Barr, Leitrim. View.

According to the information in the Census, the McDermotts live in House No 1 in the townland of Lagthy Barr, which is in the DED of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim

What language is used to fill in the form?
What version of his (Mac Diarmada’s) name is used in the form?
What was his father’s occupation?
How many boys and girls were in the family?
What information is given for each person in the language column, entitled Irish language?

Image: The National Archives of Ireland, Census of Ireland 1911

Source 2

The 1911 Census, Lagthy Barr, Leitrim. View.

According to the information in this Census, the family is still living here, but note the various changes which have taken place in ten years. Use worksheet.

How many of the original family are gone from the house?
Who is now living there?
What language is used to fill in the form?
What information is given for each person in the language column, entitled Irish language?
How does this differ from the previous census?

Image: The National Archives of Ireland, Census of Ireland 1911

Source 3

The 1911 Census, 15 Russell Place, Dublin. View.

By 1911, Mac Diarmada, aged 26, was living in Russell Place, Dublin. His life had changed considerably. He is now involved in many of the key organisations, both cultural and political.
Examine the census return for the lodging house and answer the following questions:

In what language do he and the other lodgers fill in the form?
In column 4, he describes his religion as ‘náisúntacht na hÉireann’. ‘nationalism of Ireland’. How does the enumerator translate this?
In column 9, marital status, he describes himself as ’single’ but ‘not for long’ (‘aonta, ach ní fada a bheidh’).
In column 15, under ‘infirmity’, he describes himself as ‘croí briste’ – ‘m’aontacht’ / broken hearted because of being single.

Source 4

Census Day, 2 April, 1911.

The DMP (Dublin Metropolitan Police) assisted as enumerators in Dublin. Their tasks included the distribution, collation and collection of the forms.
Read an account of Dublin on 2nd April.

Seán Lemass (Learning Resources)

Photo: Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

Research Profile: Seán Lemass

The life and world of the teenage Seán Lemass: seen through the sources.

Reporting on Seán Lemass’s death in 1971, Pathé News speaks of his unique achievements, both national and international: thirty years a minister, and Taoiseach from 1959 -1966.

What can we discover from the online archives about the immediate world of the teenage Lemass, 1900 – 1916, who earned the title ‘boy hero’ for his activities during the 1916 Rising?

Research method

Gather the basic genealogical information on the subject and his family by consulting the Church and Civil records.
Examine the census returns (forms N, B1 and A) to gather information about the subject’s immediate neighbourhood; the living and social conditions.

Form N: provides the helicopter view: see at a glance the number of families in each house and the religion of the householders.

Form B1: provides the street view: view type of house and the number of rooms occupied by each family.

Form A: provides the in-house view: personal details such as age, occupation, education, language and birthplace of everyone in each house. Note the headings children born alive, children still alive in the 1911 census.

Credit: Seán O'Conner, private collection

Early years: Capel street in the 1911 Census

Capel street was a busy thoroughfare, teeming with people of very varied backgrounds and social standing. Tenement buildings were common in particular stretches of the street. Twenty seven people lived above the Dairy at No. 111. Next door, above a shop, six families occupied one room per family.

The same overcrowding is evident in No. 113. Andrew Clarkin, a ‘boot top cutter’ and his wife Rosanna, ‘a boot top machinist’, shared a single room with their five children, ranging in age from fifteen to five.

As well as those who lived on the street, a constant stream of people from outside the area would have come and gone on a daily basis to the pawn shop at No. 108, through the doors of the Public Library at No. 106 and the Dublin United Trades building, at Nos. 114-116.

Taking into account all the shops and businesses around them, the Lawlor sisters would have been kept busy in the Post Office and stationery shop at No. 141. Indeed, any or all of the four postmen living in Capel Street may have worked with them.

Right in the middle of all this activity stood the DMP (Dublin Metropolitan Police) Barracks at No. 101, occupied by thirty one constables, identified on the census form only by their initials.
They came from every county in Ireland, and all listed their previous occupation as ‘farm labourer’. All except one were Catholics. Seven spoke both Irish and English.

The vast majority were young (aged between twenty and thirty) and single. Some of them may well have been employed distributing, filling in and collecting the very census forms we are able to read today.

Irish Newspaper Archives: The Irish Independent, 19th December, 1911

Images: The National Archives of Ireland, Census of Ireland 1911

No. 2 Capel Street

The Lemass family lived in No. 2 Capel Street, close to the quays on the north side of the river Liffey, less than a kilometre from the GPO in O’Connell Street (then Sackville Street) and within sight of the City Hall. Their immediate neighbourhood (numbers 1 – 41) stretched from the quays to the corner of Upper Abbey Street, and included several shops, two public houses, two boarding houses and a bank.

Form N

The census form for this section of the street reveals well-off and poor people living side by side: fourteen houses are recorded as uninhabited, but were in fact large shops or warehouses, such as McQuillan’s Tool and Cutlery Establishment at No. 36, described as having both a shop and workshop.

Read their very modern style advertisement to appreciate the range of their services. Send a penny stamp and they will send you a catalogue by return.

A sweet factory at No. 17 promised the finest boiled sweets and may have announced its presence by the smell:

Eleven houses are occupied by a single family (including the Lemass family). Check.
All were Catholics. Two families of the Jewish faith lived in Nos. 33 and 35. Check.

Form B1

Images: The National Archives of Ireland, Census of Ireland 1911

This form identifies the names of the occupants of each house and indicates the level of comfort or hardship of their living conditions.

All the inhabited premises in this part of the street are described as ‘shop’ with the exception of No. 6 which was a public house.

The Lemass family had plenty of room and privacy in their 8 roomed house, over the shop.
Next door, James Ronan’s family shared with the Colemans, Healys and Slavins.
The Ronans occupied two rooms in the house. Check.
The Braunsteins, as a single family unit, lived comfortably in No. 33; 4 people in 4 rooms.
However, eight of the Taylors occupied one room in No. 35 with 3 other families living in the house. Check.

Form A

This form provides a detailed picture of the household.

The Ronans
James worked nearby as doorkeeper in City Hall. He lived with his wife Margaret, his three children, his 17-year-old niece Margaret and a 54-year old lodger in obviously cramped conditions. All the adults could read and write. All were born in Dublin. Check.

The Braunsteins
Simon, a master tailor and his wife a tailoress, were born in Romania, and are described as of the ‘Hebrew religion’. Their 8 year old son was born in Dublin. Lina, his wife cannot read or write English. They had a domestic servant, a Catholic, born in Wexford who spoke Irish and English. Check.

Images: The National Archives of Ireland, Census of Ireland 1911

The Taylors
Jacob Taylor was also a tailor. He, his wife Hilda and the eldest two children were born in Russia. The next two children were born in Leeds and the youngest was born in Dublin. The children ranged in age from 22 to 11; all lived in one room. They are also described as of the ‘Hebrew religion’. Neither parent can read or write English. Jacob puts an X (his mark) instead of his signature at bottom of the form. Check.

Photo: Nationaal Archief/Collectie Spaarnestad/Het Leven

Capel Street 1921

The British army in Capel Street 1920/1921.

Note the shop fronts on left hand side of picture: Skeffingtons in No. 24 with Egans on the first floor. Williams are next door selling tea and groceries and at No. 25. Millers run a business a few doors away.

These shop fronts would have been very similar to the streetscape known to the teenage Lemass.

Update to the Civil Records

Welcome to www.irishgenealogy.ie

Welcome to Family Research 2016

Church records available online @ www.irishgenealogy.ie

Minister Humphreys launches online genealogy toolkit for schools to help students discover their family history

Introduction (Learning Resources)

Family Research 2016 Learning Resources: Introduction

This project encourages students to create a family tree which takes them back to life as experienced by their ancestors in 1916. In this way students can gain an understanding of the social and political conditions of the period.

Case Studies

Seán Lemass and Seán Mac Diarmada

Starting the Project

Templates

Online Resources

Key Archives

1. Irish Genealogy.ie

2. The National Archives

3. Bureau of Military History

4. Military Archives

Additional Online Resources

5. The National Library

6. Newspapers

7. Dictionary of Irish Biography

8. RTÉ: Century Ireland

9. RTÉ Archives

10. Google Tour of the 1916 Rising

11. The Irish Revolution

12. Dublin City Library

13. Leinster House Historical Talks

14. The Irish Flag

15. TCD: Changed Utterly: Ireland and the Easter Rising

16. UCD: The History Hub

17. Maynooth: The Letters of 1916

Seán Mac Diarmada (Learning Resources)

Research Profile: Seán Mac Diarmada

Public and private life: discovery in the archives.

The public man in 1916: an introduction

The Rising: behind the scenes

Good Friday 1916 in the Red Bank restaurant, D’Olier Street, Dublin

Mac Diarmada’s social life: new perspectives

Around Grafton Street

Ranelagh

Henry Street

No. 5 Lower Abbey Street

Personal traits and traumas

The DBC Luncheon and Tea Rooms, Sackville Street

Official ‘Diary’: Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), (Movement of Extremists files)

Part 1: Social & personal – the early years

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4

Seán Lemass (Learning Resources)

Research Profile: Seán Lemass

The life and world of the teenage Seán Lemass: seen through the sources.

Research method

Early years: Capel street in the 1911 Census

No. 2 Capel Street

Form N

Form B1

Form A

Capel Street 1921

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