An ash shower mistaken for snowfall caused by burning pyres of paper files at Dublin Castle; the painting of pillar-boxes from red to green across the capital; an attack in a small hamlet called Red Cow on the Naas Road; and the transformation of market gardens and allotments into the Irish Free State’s first public housing scheme, The Tenters in Dublin 8.
These are just a sample of the fascinating vignettes contained in a new short history collection by the Dublin City Council Historians in Residence and Dublin’s Historian in Residence for Children.
The new book, ‘History on your Doorstep Volume 5’, was launched today, Thursday, 8th December, by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Caroline Conroy at City Hall.
The new collection contains five chapters by each of the Dublin City Council Historians in Residence, who are Cathy Scuffil, James Curry, Mary Muldowney, Cormac Moore and Dervilia Roche, the Historian in Residence for Children.
Since 2017, the Historians in Residence, and since 2020, the Historian in Residence for Children have worked in neighbourhoods in the five administrative areas of Dublin City Council to make history and historical sources accessible and enjoyable for all, to encourage local people to engage with history, and to promote its sources and discussion, especially the historical collections in Dublin City Library and Archive.
The ‘History on your Doorstep Volume 5’ chapter titles and their authors are:
- And Life Went On … Daily life for Dubliners 1922, Catherine Scuffil, Historian in Residence, Dublin South City Areas.
- ‘Eight young men in the City Hall … with wild men screaming through the keyhole’ – Dublin City Hall in 1922, Cormac Moore, Historian in Residence, Dublin North Central.
- Women activists in Dublin during the Civil War, Mary Muldowney, Historian in Residence, Dublin Central area.
- Remembering Cathal Brugha, James Curry, Historian in Residence, Dublin Northwest.
- ‘It’s part of who we are today’. Children making sense of the Civil War, Dervilia Roche, Historian in Residence for Children.
Launching ‘History on your Doorstep Volume 5’, Lord Mayor of Dublin Caroline Conroy said: “This fifth volume in the ‘History on your Doorstep’ series reflects the extensive research conducted by the four Historians in Residence together with the Children’s Historian in Residence into the events of the Irish Civil War in Dublin. The five chapters cover diverse approaches to the history of the tragedy as it affected Dublin between the commencement of the Civil War on 28th June 1922 to the call for an ‘arms dump’ in May 1923 that ended the hostilities, although there was no formal surrender. The detailed depiction of events in many of the places we are familiar with and live in today in the capital makes this volume an engrossing and important book for everyone.”