Carlow Remembers 1916 - Dublin Street Commemoration
Dublin Street in Carlow town, as it looked a century ago, will be the highlight of a weekend of activities this Friday and Saturday (April 1st and 2nd). Carlow Remembers 1916 portrays the social and economic life of the street, as it was in 1916, when it was the commercial hub of Carlow town. Veteran cars of the period, steam lorries, steam transport, a horse drawn carriage, horses and traps and donkeys and carts will line the streetscape, all popular modes of transport at the time.
Events will also focus on the legacy of change in commercial life and lifestyles with shops depicting traditional businesses of the period including a carpentry workshop and garage, a sales room featuring restored horse drawn agricultural machinery, a vegetable shop and a draper and dressmaker shop. Live blacksmith, weaving and basket making demonstrations will re-create some of the traditional crafts of the time.
A series of exhibitions will remember the many Carlow people who participated in the 1916 Rising at various levels - Michael O’Hanrahan, from Carlow town, was executed a few days after the revolt; nurse Margaret Kehoe from Leighlinbridge, the first fatality of the Rising, was shot dead while tending an injured volunteer on the roadway outside the South Dublin Union, where she worked. In all more than twenty men and women will be remembered for their roles in 1916, and throughout the 1921/22 period. The Slapdash Theatre Company will enact crucial moments in the lives of these heroes of the Rising at various locations in the vicinity of Dublin Street. Other exhibitions include “Carlow - Then and Now’ which will look back at how towns and villages throughout the county looked a century ago with contemporary photographs to emphasise the enormous physical changes that have taken place in the intervening period.
Carlow people and the descendants of emigrants from the county who were alive in 1916 will feature in an achiever’s gallery. Names include Walt Disney, whose ancestors farmed at Downings near Tullow, and Clonmelsh; Michael Molloy, M.P. for Carlow in 1916 and the last member for the county to sit in the House of Commons. Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York, whose grandmother Ellen Kehoe was from Kilbride and the Hollywood film director William Desmond Taylor, born at The Elms, Athy Road, Carlow and who was shot dead at his Hollywood home in 1922.
There will be a military exhibition from Carlow Military Museum commemorating Carlow soldiers killed or injured in the First World War, together with another of maps of Carlow dating to the 18th century and a special display of Wolseley cars and photographic material; – a car marque that derived it’s name from company founder Frederick York Wolseley, whose ancestral home was in Tullow.
Another exhibition will feature rare photo albums, rent books and other publications from the late 19th century, and a book shop with publications by Carlow authors during the last half century. From the Wallace Museum collection, some very rare domestic utensils, long since forgotten. A challenge to identify many unusual items from around 1916, should prove interesting with the reward of a prize for the winner.
Shop owners and their staff will be in period costume on both days and the organisers - Carlow Tourism and Club Carlow GAA - made a call this week for people visiting the event to wear traditional dress adding to the historic atmosphere of the occasion.
A special mass, at 11 am on Saturday April 2nd, will be celebrated in the Capuchin Friary in Dublin Street to commemorate the victims of the Rising and World War I. While later that day at 4 p.m. a parade of players and representatives from GAA clubs throughout the county will leave Hay Market via Dublin Street marching to Netwatch Cullen Park for a re-enactment of the 1916 hurling and football finals played between Carlow Graigue and Bagenalstown, and Tullow and Tinryland. Period attire will be worn by all the players and a souvenir programme will be available ahead of the event and at the venue.
Chairman of Carlow Tourism Cllr. John Murphy noted that “the event is a rare opportunity to glimpse the day-to-day commercial and cultural life of Carlow as it was in 1916 and is perfect for lovers of local history. Children will also be able to appreciate the reality of life as it would have been in their great-grandparents time. Visitors to Carlow will have so much to enjoy on Friday and Saturday, what with the arrival of 2,000 overseas visitors for the International Pan Celtic Festival, the Celtic Taste of Carlow Food and Craft Festival and the Dublin Street commemoration – the town will be truly a hive of activity”.
