‘Precious democratic legacy’ of 1916 marked at Jacob’s factory

A large crowd assembled along Bishop Street in Dublin's south inner city on Monday to commemorate the volunteers of the Jacob's biscuit factory garrison - the last to surrender at Easter week 1916.

Descendants of Daniel McGrath (his granddaughter Gerri O’Neill) and Henry J Williams (his great grandson Willow Murray) laid a wreath outside Dublin Institute of Technology, which now occupies the former factory site along with the National Archives.

“Your ancestors were part of a movement that changed the fault lines of history,” said Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly.

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Acting Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly addresses the crowd at the former site of the Jacob’s biscuit factory. Photograph: Dan Griffin

“The events of that momentous week and its aftermath and the inspired Proclamation which underpins it, has shaped our view of ourselves and our nation for the past century.”

He added: “The members of the revolutionary generation of 1916 to 1923 have bequeathed to us, their children and grandchildren, a precious democratic legacy that transcends politics and traditions. It is a part of who we are.”

Patrick Pearse’s order to cease hostilities on Saturday, April 29th, 1916, did not reach the Jacob’s factory, located about 1.3km south of the GPO, until the following day. When it did, it was met with dismay, Mr Justice Peter Charlton told the gathering.

Full assault anticipated

The volunteers had established their positions at the factory but spent the week anticipating a full assault that failed to arrive as the British forces concentrated on the more strategically important GPO and Four Courts.

Mr Justice Charleton, chairman of the National Archives advisory council, told the crowd that a piano had sat, incongruously, on one of the upstairs floors. It was played from time to time during Easter week, he said, “its sounds mingling with that of sniper fire, the whistling of bullets and the shells which burst from gunboats at Howth and artillery in the city”.

And all the while the production of biscuits continued. “My father was Patrick McCabe, he was 26 years of age and working here in Jacob’s when the troubles broke out,” said Paddy McCabe, one of the spectators.

“The people who ran the factory arranged for them to be able to access the building from the rear and to get in to try and keep the production going, which they succeeded in doing.

“I have to be honest, certainly the workers at that time weren’t impressed with the people taking over their building, breaking the windows in the front of the factory and using bags of flour as sandbags.”

The volunteers were soon covered in flour and sickened by a diet of cake - relieved eventually through meat and potatoes procured from local shopkeepers, Mr Justice Charleton said.

When the end came, many of the men and women of the 2nd battalion wanted to remain and fight it out, but their senior officers, including Thomas MacDonagh, Major John MacBride and Captain Michael O’Hanrahan were resigned to the inevitability of surrender.

MacDonagh, MacBride and O’Hanrahan would be executed in the days that followed.