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Dublin 1916: The Siege of the GPO
Dublin 1916. The Siege of the
- GenresNonfictionHistory
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 2, 2018
Much as the Alamo does for Texas, the neo-classical General Post Office in Dublin serves today as a symbol of a people’s struggle for independence. On Easter Monday, 1916, the building was among those seized by a band of armed men, who then proclaimed the creation of an Irish republic in front of its stone columns and turned it into a headquarters for the subsequent battle against government forces. Though gutted in the fighting, the GPO was rebuilt, and in the years that followed the building became the backdrop for commemorations of the struggle for Irish independence. The GPO and its role in memorializing the Rising is the subject of Clair Wills’ short study, which explains how the building came to assume such a central role in the Irish national consciousness.
Wills begins by recounting the role of the GPO in the Easter Rising. She explains the importance of the building to the people of the time, noting that the pervasive presence of the Post Office throughout Ireland and the imposing grandeur of the building itself contributed to its attractiveness as a target for the rebels. She goes on to recount the key events of the Rising that took place inside; though she fits them within the context of events as they developed, she keeps her focus here squarely on the GPO and the surrounding streets, ignoring the details of events at such places as Boland’s Mill and Jacob’s Biscuit Factory. With the end of the Rising Wills moves on to describe its immediate aftermath, noting that the event was quickly relegated to the background for most people giving the ongoing drama of the First World War. Yet artists and writers were already beginning the process of memorializing the Rising, and their paintings and poems contributed to the establishment of the role of the building as the stage for the central drama of the event.
Recognizing its growing symbolism, the authorities went to considerable lengths to prevent the building from being used as a stage for demonstrations against British rule during the War of Independence. But with independence the GPO became the scene of struggle once more – only this time it became part of the larger political struggle over the meaning of independence. By the 1930s, the GPO began to play a new role as well, as it served as a symbol to remind the post-independence generation of the sacrifices made. This usage reached a peak with the fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 1966, after which the parades and rhetoric were downplayed so as to avoid efforts by Sinn Fein to associate the Rising with the ongoing Troubles in Northern Ireland. Wills concludes by describing the ongoing importance of the GPO to Irish identity today, one evident by the plans to remodel the site in preparation for the centennial of the Rising in 2016.
Wills’s book provides a thoughtful examination of the GPO and its role as a symbol of Irish history. Her abilities as a literary scholar are on fine display, as she analyzes the works that are part of this process with insight and clarity. Her success in this regard makes her book a valuable study not just of the GPO or of the memorialization of the Rising, but of the construction of historical symbols and the role that they play in the development of national identity, one that can be read for pleasure as well as enlightenment.
Wills begins by recounting the role of the GPO in the Easter Rising. She explains the importance of the building to the people of the time, noting that the pervasive presence of the Post Office throughout Ireland and the imposing grandeur of the building itself contributed to its attractiveness as a target for the rebels. She goes on to recount the key events of the Rising that took place inside; though she fits them within the context of events as they developed, she keeps her focus here squarely on the GPO and the surrounding streets, ignoring the details of events at such places as Boland’s Mill and Jacob’s Biscuit Factory. With the end of the Rising Wills moves on to describe its immediate aftermath, noting that the event was quickly relegated to the background for most people giving the ongoing drama of the First World War. Yet artists and writers were already beginning the process of memorializing the Rising, and their paintings and poems contributed to the establishment of the role of the building as the stage for the central drama of the event.
Recognizing its growing symbolism, the authorities went to considerable lengths to prevent the building from being used as a stage for demonstrations against British rule during the War of Independence. But with independence the GPO became the scene of struggle once more – only this time it became part of the larger political struggle over the meaning of independence. By the 1930s, the GPO began to play a new role as well, as it served as a symbol to remind the post-independence generation of the sacrifices made. This usage reached a peak with the fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 1966, after which the parades and rhetoric were downplayed so as to avoid efforts by Sinn Fein to associate the Rising with the ongoing Troubles in Northern Ireland. Wills concludes by describing the ongoing importance of the GPO to Irish identity today, one evident by the plans to remodel the site in preparation for the centennial of the Rising in 2016.
Wills’s book provides a thoughtful examination of the GPO and its role as a symbol of Irish history. Her abilities as a literary scholar are on fine display, as she analyzes the works that are part of this process with insight and clarity. Her success in this regard makes her book a valuable study not just of the GPO or of the memorialization of the Rising, but of the construction of historical symbols and the role that they play in the development of national identity, one that can be read for pleasure as well as enlightenment.
January 14, 2019
Interesting and readable account of the GPO's place in culture - focussed mainly on the period after the 1916 rising, but it does take a little time to situate it in the pre-rising period.
October 31, 2023
again, did i technically read all of this book? no.
did i read enough that i was able to write 1,000 words on it? yes.
so i'm counting it.
did i read enough that i was able to write 1,000 words on it? yes.
so i'm counting it.
January 8, 2023
A somewhat misleading title, no doubt for marketing reasons, because the book is not just about the siege of the Post Office in 1916 during the Easter rebellion - but a look at the various ways the post office building has been used to explain reinforce and define the interpretation and understanding of what the Irish rebellion and the state that emerged from it meant.
I knew the post office building back in the 1970s and early 80s when the confidence in what that meaning was clearly was in a state of severe questioning due to the escalating Northern Irish violence. In any case I always thought it was odd that the post office was such a prominent building (can you conjure up a picture of the central post office in any other major city?) and as a symbol of revolution in lacked something compared to the Bastille, Tuileries or Winter Palaces. Compared to the edifices commemorating revolutions post WWI in Europe, even Portugal, it was definitely uninspiring - the most impressive part of it it was the vast Georgian portico and walls all British built well over a hundred years before the rising. The commemoration of the revolutionary was the least impressive part of the building - a small bronze statue inside the building getting in the way stamps (and only installed in 1966). No eternal flames, no museum to the dead, no string world's in marble and bronze.
Although it was patently obvious that there was a 'national story' it was also apparent to me as as schoolboy that no one was into spending money. Even O'Connell Street was, back the 1970s, a shabby, tacky, run down place (not unlike places like Piccadilly and Leicester Square in London back then).
But to return to Ms. Willis's interesting book, it is a perfectly adequate relation of the events of 1916 but it is really is most interesting in its relation of the shifting patterns of commemoration - patterns which have continued shift since this book was published so inevitably it is dated. Although I can't criticise any major lapses or failings the books lacks something. Perhaps the visceral honesty and disrespect that a real Dubliner would use to demolish and make fun of it all and at the same time cut through the politese to some basic truths. It is that sharpness of viewpoint that this book lacks, not information, but an honest appreciation of bull shit were politicians, church and received wisdom are concerned in Ireland.
I knew the post office building back in the 1970s and early 80s when the confidence in what that meaning was clearly was in a state of severe questioning due to the escalating Northern Irish violence. In any case I always thought it was odd that the post office was such a prominent building (can you conjure up a picture of the central post office in any other major city?) and as a symbol of revolution in lacked something compared to the Bastille, Tuileries or Winter Palaces. Compared to the edifices commemorating revolutions post WWI in Europe, even Portugal, it was definitely uninspiring - the most impressive part of it it was the vast Georgian portico and walls all British built well over a hundred years before the rising. The commemoration of the revolutionary was the least impressive part of the building - a small bronze statue inside the building getting in the way stamps (and only installed in 1966). No eternal flames, no museum to the dead, no string world's in marble and bronze.
Although it was patently obvious that there was a 'national story' it was also apparent to me as as schoolboy that no one was into spending money. Even O'Connell Street was, back the 1970s, a shabby, tacky, run down place (not unlike places like Piccadilly and Leicester Square in London back then).
But to return to Ms. Willis's interesting book, it is a perfectly adequate relation of the events of 1916 but it is really is most interesting in its relation of the shifting patterns of commemoration - patterns which have continued shift since this book was published so inevitably it is dated. Although I can't criticise any major lapses or failings the books lacks something. Perhaps the visceral honesty and disrespect that a real Dubliner would use to demolish and make fun of it all and at the same time cut through the politese to some basic truths. It is that sharpness of viewpoint that this book lacks, not information, but an honest appreciation of bull shit were politicians, church and received wisdom are concerned in Ireland.
February 8, 2010
"Rhetoric" used lots.
Read like a research paper
I'll try something else.
Read like a research paper
I'll try something else.
July 27, 2011
Quite enlightening but somewhat disjointed.
May 14, 2016
cultural history of the rising.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews