Research Catalog

Title

Defending Trinity College Dublin, Easter 1916 : Anzacs and the rising / Rory Sweetman.

Author

Sweetman, Rory

Publication

Dublin, Ireland : Four Courts Press, 2019.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

172 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

"Little has been written on Trinity College's role in Easter Week 1916 as a "loyal nucleus" dividing the insurgents and providing a counterweight to rebel headquarters in the GPO. The college is usually mentioned in the context of the rebels' alleged failure to attempt its capture, and its co-option as a barracks in the later stages of the rebellion. This book reveals how five New Zealanders, acting as the core of a squad of colonial troops, provided a vital shield to protect Trinity from capture. Had the college fallen to the surprise attack launched on it by the rebels on Easter Monday, it's 324th year may well have been its last ; nothing less than heavy and prolonged artillery would have sufficed to defeat the occupiers. Letters written home by the Kiwi soldiers give fresh insight into important aspects of the insurrection and help to answer questions left unasked in previous studies: how close did Trinity come to being a central battleground in the Rising? How and why did it escape this grisly fate? And - not least - what might have happened but for the timely intervention by the colonial troops? [This book] puts this neglected episode into an imperial context, with Dublin as a theatre of battle in a global war."--Back cover.

Subject

• Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) > History > 20th century
• Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
• Easter Rising (Ireland : 1916)
• 1900-1999
• Ireland > History > Easter Rising, 1916
• Ireland

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• Foreword / Eunan O'Halpin -- Introduction -- 1. Remembering and forgetting -- 2. 'That English fort in Ireland' -- 3. 'Duty well fulfilled' -- 4. From the outermost ends of the Earth -- 5. Whatiffery -- 6. Epilogue.
• Appendix one: New Zealand letters (1. John Godwin Garland [Auckland Star, 28 June 1916, p. 8] ; 2. Finlay McLeod, [Grey River Argus, 22 July 1916, p.8] ; 3. Alexander Don [Dunedin Evening Star, 21 July 1916, p.5] ; 4. Frederick Nevin [Liverpool Daily Post, 2 May 1916, p. 5] ; 5. Frederick Henry Hobbs [Christchurch Sun, 12 July 1916, p. 9] ; 6. 'A Canterbury lady' [Chriostchurch Press, 25 July 1916, p. 8])
• Appendix two: Irish letters (1. Mr. McDermott [Evening Post, Wellington, 1 May 1916, p. 7] ; 2. Mr. Rentoul Brown [Christchurch Star, 22 June 1916, p. 3])
• Appendix three: OTC letters and reports (1. Robert Tweedy, OTC cadet, to his mother, 7 May 1916 [TCD MS 7533/3] ; 2. Gerald Fitzgibbon, (10 Merrion Square Dublin) to William Hume Blake, 10 May 1916 [TCD MS 11107/1] ; 3. Gerald Fitzgibbon, (10 Merrion Square Dublin) to William Hume Blake, 15 May 1916 [TCD MS 11107/2] ; 4. Ernest Alton, 'Work of the OTC', TCD, 19 June 1916 ; 5. Ernest Alton's report in 'Sinn Fein rebellion: a souvenir of presentations to the Officer Training Corps, Trinity College, Dublin,' (Dublin, 1916) ; 6. Major G. A. Harris, report to War Office, 'Defence of TCD by the DUOTC during the period 25th April to 4th May, 1916', [WO 32/9576, National Archives, London] ; 7. John Joly, 'Reminiscences and anticipations' (London, 1920), chapter 8: 'In Trinity College during the Sinn Fein rebellion' by 'One of the Garrison') -- Dramatis personae.

Call Number

JFE 19-4468

ISBN

• 1846827841
• 9781846827846

OCLC

1080073755

Author

Sweetman, Rory, author.

Title

Defending Trinity College Dublin, Easter 1916 : Anzacs and the rising / Rory Sweetman.

Publisher

Dublin, Ireland : Four Courts Press, 2019.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Research Call Number

JFE 19-4468