TO CELEBRATE the 100th anniversary of the actual date of the 1916 Rising, Irish actor Patrick Bergin will read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic on the steps of the house where Patrick Pearse was born.
Pearse was born in the basement of 27 Pearse Street (formerly Great Brunswick Street), which was a derelict building before it was restored to what it might have looked like 100 years ago.
Pearse and his brother Willie and sisters Margaret and Mary Brigid lived in the house on the street that is named after them today. It was here that their father, James Pearse, established a stonemasonry business in the 1850s, a business which flourished and provided the Pearses with a comfortable middle-class upbringing.
Pearse’s father was a mason and monumental sculptor, and originally a Unitarian from Birmingham in England.
Patrick and Willie Pearse spent their formative years here and carried out their trade of monumental sculptors in the yard at the rear of the premises.
When the Rising eventually began on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, it was Pearse who read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from outside the General Post Office, the headquarters of the rebellion. After six days of fighting, heavy civilian casualties and great destruction of property, Pearse issued the order to surrender.
Pearse and 14 other leaders, including his brother Willie, were court-martialled and executed by firing squad. Thomas Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh and Pearse himself were the first of the rebels to be executed, on the morning of May 3. Pearse was 36 years old at the time of his death. Roger Casement, who had tried unsuccessfully to recruit an insurgent force among Irish-born prisoners of war from the Irish Brigade in Germany, was hanged in London the following August.
Bergin will also read excerpts from the writings of James Connolly in the house.
Composer and musician Jane Deasy (www.jeandeasy.ie) and a string quartet will perform her piece, commissioned for the occasion, called ‘From the Sculptor’s Yard to the Stonebreaker’s Yard’.
An exhibition of Joby Hickey’s work of 1916 battle sites and how they look today will be available to be viewed upstairs in the house. His work is etched onto metal plates and can be seen at www.jobyhickey.com Connecticut-born Brian Palm will show contemporary cityscapes and Dublin images, combining photo-collage and oil paint.
The house was restored using Government funds and money raised by The Ireland Institute, a non-political group, with the late Brian Friel, Padraig O’Snodaigh, Robert Ballagh and Edna O’Brien among the original patrons.
The event takes place on Sudnay, April 24 at 12.14pm at 27 Pearse Street.
