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As we come to the end of the anniversaries for the execution dates in 1916, I have to stop and ponder the logic of the British government throughout history. The Rising was not popular and it was rife with miscommunication and leadership wars. If the government had not executed the leaders, making them martyrs, it may have been a footnote in history. They have made this mistake time and time again, almost as if they either WANT to concede their empire or as if they want the struggle to continue.

Whenever the people get sick of the fighting and membership of Republican fighters is down, they do something so wrong and so tyrannical that suddenly, there’s a giant surge in the ranks. This happened in 1916. It happened in Derry when the Army shot 26 peaceful protesters. It happened again when Bobby Sands and the other hunger strikers lost their fight and died in prison. Depending on how the dust settles, it may happen again in the aftermath of Gerry Adam’s arrest just weeks before elections. You would think that SOMEONE over the puddle would be more strategic and learn from their historical mistakes.

One of their biggest mistakes, was letting Grace Gifford and Joseph Plunkett get married the night before they executed him in 1916 at Kilmainham. It is a tragic love story of star crossed lovers – one that tugs on the heartstrings of anyone and everyone, even those who didn’t approve of the Rising. They were married in the prison chapel and were only allowed ten minutes of supervised time as husband and wife before the crown shot Joseph Plunkett the morning after the wedding. They were taunted and watched for the entire 10 minutes and yet, by all accounts, they only had eyes and ears for each other. 10 minutes of bittersweet joy before their love was destroyed – and as Shakespeare can attest to – that makes for an undying, sympathetic story that the whole world can stand behind, rebel or not.

Grace was a strong woman. She was the daughter of a mixed marriage (Catholic and Protestant) and was an unlikely rebel. She tried to make a living as an illustrator and a political cartoonist. She was to be married to Joseph Plunkett on Easter Sunday – plans that were made before she had any knowledge of the Rising. She insisted on the wedding in the prison chapel when she learned that her fiance was to be executed on May 4th, 1916. On May 3rd, she bought her own wedding ring and went to the jail to marry her love, despite her parents’ objections, knowing that she was to be a widow just hours later. She never remarried and remained Grace Gifford Plunkett for the rest of her days – a shining example of a dedicated Republican woman and a walking reminder of her tragic love story. She was known as Ireland’s tragic bride and she returned to Kilmainham Gaol as a prisoner years later.

Plunkett was a poet and a signatory on the Proclamation of Independence. Already a romantic and philosophical man, his wedding to Grace and their story of tragedy and dedication made their love a flash point of the rising that continued to burn after he was executed. Their 98th anniversary was just days ago.

Kilmainham has reopened as a museum and a tourist location. One of the first places you will visit there is the prison chapel where they were married. A projector displays their photos above the altar at the start of the tour and you will also see both of their cells while visiting. Hers still has one of her more famous paintings on the back wall – one of Mary, showing that her adoption of Joseph’s Catholic faith stuck even after her husband was killed.

On the 3rd floor of the Gaol is an unnerving and heartbreaking exhibition of ‘Last Words’ – featuring the letters, mementos, and other possessions of Republican prisoners and rebel leaders. The letters from the prison to Grace are almost as gut-wrenching as the correspondence between her and her future husband in the days leading up to their wedding and his death. It is impossible to stand in the room without feeling the power of their story and the shadow of their love that remains. It was also impossible for me to be there without tears streaming down my face for almost the entire tour.

So happy anniversary to Grace and Joseph. If there’s any justice in the world, they found each other again in their version of the afterlife and maybe someday soon, the free Ireland they both believed in will finally come to fruition.

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The Star-Crossed Lovers of 1916

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Homesick For A Place That Isn’t Home (Yet)

 

Well, not in this life anyway. (Yet) 98 years ago, on Easter Monday, a big thing began in Dublin. I cannot  help but feel that I was there in some form or another – in a different life – because how else could I explain the connection I have to Ireland in general and that time in particular? The entire time I was there, I  had a never-ending sense of deja-vu and since I have been back, I have longed every day and dreamed every night of the emerald isle. I’m even learning Irish – and it drives me bonkers every day – but I cannot stop.

So this Easter to celebrate the Rising, I am wearing an Easter Lily for Ireland’s patriot dead and I added the GPO into the Atlas Obscura lexicon. It was all I could do, since I am on the wrong continent today. It is a lonely place in my head and heart – standing alone amongst the people I know in the things and the history that is so vital to who I am and learning a language that I have no one to speak it with. Still…as the fiddles play on the stereo and I watch Gerry Adams give a speech to the commemorative crowd in Dublin, I know in my heart that I found a home – and continue to explore it every day – even from too great a distance. And as he said this morning, “If this were 19 and 16, we would all be in the GPO”. I know I would, I think I was …and I will be again for the 100 year anniversary.

I repeat and expand on the Atlas entry here too…because of a deep love of the Irish Nationalist history and the fact that today is the day to celebrate the one place in all the world that I’d be OK with being labeled a Republican.

 

The General Post Office in Dublin on O’Connell street is the headquarters of the Irish Postal Service and a bustling hub of activity, but every Easter Monday it becomes a symbol of Irish revolution and a somber place of remembrance.

Dublin was still under British rule in 1916, when seven unlikely revolutionaries hatched a plan for an armed uprising during the Easter holiday. They were a headmaster, a poet, a tobacco enthusiast, a philosopher and more – just ordinary men who had grown weary of the boot on their necks. They were born of desperation and idealism – sure that all they had to do was begin before their whole country stood with them. In secret, they wrote a Proclamation of Independence and chose strategic sites in downtown Dublin for their Rising, including the post office along the main thoroughfare of the city. They felt that once the revolution began the people of Ireland would rise with them and they assumed that the British would not destroy their own property in retaliation.  They were mistaken on all counts.

The Rising had its problems from the beginning. Due to a split in leadership and miscommunications, even the date was confused. When the fighting didn’t begin on Easter as many thought, much needed would-be reinforcements turned around and went home. Despite this, the planned takeovers of government buildings began on Easter Monday, and the destruction of a large portion of Dublin shortly followed.

The general post office, or GPO, was the headquarters of the revolution. The men took over the GPO – not harming anyone who was there but not leaving either. Here the Irish flag was raised and the Proclamation was recited loudly, by Padraig Pearse to the jeers and complaints of the citizenry who just wanted to post their mail. When the British began to shell the area with heavy artillery, the complaints grew louder. The post office was eventually set on fire and mostly destroyed, along with many of the buildings around it. In the end, the British army had no qualms about destroying most of downtown Dublin to defeat the upstarts in the GPO.

The Easter Rising only had to last for 3 days to have a chance, because of an agreement with Germany. The German government had promised that if they could last 3 days, the question of Irish independence would be put on a global platform. Unfortunately, it was Germany…in the middle of World War 1 and well, the Irish rebels chose poorly in their ally in this matter. Still, the Rising lasted for 6 days – with less than 500 volunteer fighters against the might of the British Army. It would likely have been a mere footnote in history, but for the fact that all seven signatories and on the Proclamation and many others were then tried in secret and executed by the Crown, at which point they became martyrs to Irish freedom. Their short-lived fight eventually led to Ireland’s independence and the leaders are revered to this day. Decades later, their proclamation is located in many Irish government buildings including the GPO and on countless memorials.  It is read every year on Easter Monday at the renovated post office by a member of the Irish Defense Forces.

An Easter Lily is worn by Nationalists to symbolize the rising – and it too can be found everywhere in Ireland – in statues, memorials, Northern Irish murals and on countless lapels throughout the country and the world. No one honors their history or their martyrs like the Irish.

All that remains of the original GPO is the beautiful Georgian facade. The facade has its own visible scars of bullet holes, cracks and mortar damage that stand in mute testimony to the history of Irish Nationalism. It is a powerful place for anyone who enjoys history and it brought tears to my eyes. It is still one of the busiest post offices in all of Ireland and it houses a permanent exhibition of its role in the Rising called Letters, Lives and Liberty. Every year on Easter Monday, a wreath is laid outside the General Post Office, parades honor Ireland’s patriot dead the Proclamation is read to commemorate the men and women who fought in 1916.

Getting my Irish history on