Hundreds at Boland’s Mill to mark centenary of 1916 Rising

Boland’s Mill is among the most picturesque locations for a commemoration of the Easter Rising.

This huge stone building still stands sentinel, as it did 100 years ago with views of two of the main roads into Dublin city centre.

Hundreds of people lined the bridge over the canal and outside the Waterway Centre in Dublin's Docklands for a service which paid tribute to the 3rd battalion Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers - one of the few groups which could claim any military success in Easter week 1916.

Wreaths were laid by acting Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe and by Éamon Ó Cuív TD, grandson of Cmdt Éamon de Valera, who later served as taoiseach and president.

Afterwards, Mr Ó Cuív found himself surrounded by relatives of those who had been with his grandfather at Boland’s Mill, all anxious to share their stories.

“Everyone felt the emotion of the occasion,” he said.

He recalled his grandfather had often told the story of ordering his men to hoist the Tricolour over an adjacent distillery to deflect enemy fire to it. The ruse worked - the Helga gunboat shelled the distillery instead.

“He was also up in the railway line one night and he broke into a carriage,” he joked. “It was only when he woke up in the morning that he realised that he had broken into the royal carriage and he had slept in the king’s bed overnight.”

Generous tribute

Before the wreathlaying ceremony, Mr Donohoe paid a generous tribute to de Valera, who he said had left an enduring legacy of the Constitution.

He noted that, despite the enmities fostered by the Civil War, the politicians who led the new State did not interfere with the “rule of law, justice or the democratic will of the people so expressed in the ballot box. This was one of their greatest gifts to the Irish people.”

Maurice Manning, the chairman of the expert advisory group on commemorations, remarked on how 17 men at Mount Street Bridge had fought so bravely on Wednesday of Easter Week.

Many relatives attended the Boland's Mill wreathlaying, including Joan Fitzpatrick (90), daughter of Capt Joseph O'Byrne, one of the senior officers in Boland's Mill.

Mr Manning read from Capt O’Byrne’s account of the shelling of Boland’s Mill. “Two 18-pounder 3 inch shells ripped through the wall of the top loft where the most of my men were stationed, scattering lumps of metal and jagged stones around.”

It was an emotional time for Martina Brannigan, whose grandfather Thomas Peate was de Valera's aide-de-camp during the Rising. She came from Montreal, Canada, for the commemorations.

Ms Brannigan’s mother is the last surviving child of Peate who had 13 children.

“I’m thrilled to have walked in his footsteps to see the places that he saw,” she said, fighting back tears.

“They wanted to get back to a humanity that people wanted in the French Revolution and the American Revolution. You can hear it in some of the language of the Proclamation. We have to get back to those ideals and understand what those people stood for.”