· Collection preserves recollections of the "near witnesses to the making of some of Ireland's most significant history"
Wednesday 13th November 2013 - Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, has today launched a compilation of interviews with relatives of those involved in the 1916 Rising.
The collection features approximately 100 interviews with the relatives of those who were involved in the 1916 Rising, including their children and grandchildren, and other close relatives.
The Minister has described those taking part as "near witnesses to the making of some of Ireland's most significant history."
The interviewees recount the experiences of their relatives during the events of Easter Week 1916. The relatives give reasons why people participated in the Rising, give personal views on the impact of the Rising on survivors and their families, and in some cases speak of the pain and suffering that followed the Rising.
Minister Deenihan commented:
"Today is an important day in so many ways. It gives us the opportunity to again recognise the importance of the 1916 Rising and the impact that it had. It allows us to bring together representatives of some the families who were part of the Easter Rising story, from a range of perspectives. It preserves these valuable personal recollections for the people, and for future use by academics, historians and the general public.
"This undertaking will preserve forever the living words, recollections and insights of those touched directly and personally by the actions of Easter 1916. This collection is an important addition to our information about this time for which we, and future generations, will be forever grateful."
At the event each of the interviewees received a copy of their own recording. The original recordings and notes which helped to produce this body of work will be deposited in the National Archives, and copies will also be made available to researchers in libraries throughout the country. The Minister complemented the work of Maurice and Jane O'Keeffe in cataloguing this material which otherwise could be lost forever.
Some of the voices heard in the collection include:
Harry Boland and Eileen Barrington, children of Gerald Boland and nephew and niece of
Harry Boland;
Risteárd Mulcahy, son of Richard Mulcahy;
Fr. Joseph Mallin, son of Michael Mallin. Fr. Mallin is the last surviving child of an executed leader of 1916, and he was recorded in Hong Kong;
Sr Íde Woulfe, niece of Con Colbert;
Count Eoghan and Seoirse Plunkett, nephews of Joseph Mary Plunkett;
Dorothea Findlater, daughter of Captain Henry de Courcy-Wheeler who took the surrender of many of the leaders of the Rising in Dublin;
The late Dr. Garret FitzGerald, former Taoiseach and son of Desmond FitzGerald;
Maureen Haughey, daughter of Seán Lemass; and,
Josslyn Gore Booth, Grand-nephew of Constance Gore-Booth, Countess Markievicz.