Shirin
Pick and choose activity: Dublin Castle
Firstly, we actually didn´t know which activity from the list we should choose because every activity we were interested in was already taken. So we looked for other possibilities and Mr Meyer suggested Dublin Castle. We searched it on Google and thought it looked quite interesting, so we visited it.
Dublin Castle
In the past, Dublin Castle was the seat of the United Kingdom government´s administration in Ireland. Today, the State Apartments in Dublin Castle are used for official engagements such as policy launches, the inauguration of the president or hosting of State Visit ceremonial.
You can not only visit the castle itself, there is a lot more to see. There are two museums, the Garda Museum and the Revenue Museum, the Royal Chapel and a historic art collection but you can also visit the State Apartments or the Medieval Under croft.
Due to the fact that it is the year 2016, so the Rebellion was exactly 100 years ago, there was a special exhibition about the castle during 1916, which was very interesting especially because we had learned so much about it in Dublin.
Dublin Castle in 1916
The situation in Dublin in 1916
In 1916, the living conditions in Dublin were really bad. Most people living in the inner city had just dark, dirty, one-roomed accommodations to live in.
So when First World War started in 1914, over 10 000 men decided to fight for the British army, not because of allegiance but because of economic necessity. Many others who didn’t fight in the British army were recruited by the rebels for the Rising. So Dublin was divided into men who fought for the British Empire and men who fought against it.
Under Secretary Sir Matthew Nathan (who was responsible for the British administration in Dublin Castle) was actually aware of the upcoming rebellion but neither he nor his British peers decided to do anything about it.
Attack on Dublin Castle
On Easter Monday, a group of volunteers led by Captain Sean Connolly occupied the City Hall. The plan was to attack and take over Dublin Castle and so they seized more and more parts of it. But due to the fact that the plan was badly organised they hesitated and eventually retreated back to City Hall. They didn’t know that Dublin Castle was practically undefended in these days so if they had pushed on they would have been able to occupy the castle and to capture Under Secretary Nathan who was at a conference at the moment of the rebels’ attack.
In the afternoon, reinforcements against the rebels was fetched and after a long night of fighting the rebels were beaten. Many volunteers were imprisoned in the rear of the castle, where conditions where really bad. Captain Sean Connolly died as the first casualty of the Easter Rising.
Red Cross Hospital
During the First World War Dublin Castle was transformed into a Red Cross Hospital for wounded soldiers, who had been injured on the battlefield. There were many men, 250,000 in numbers, who fought in the ranks of the British Army. One fifth of them were killed during the war and many thousands were wounded. Over 6000 were treated in Dublin Castle. The State Apartments were filled with rows of metal beds where the patients were treated. Lord Aberdeen, who was the chairman of the commitment said: “Perhaps the State Apartments had never been put to such good use as to care for the brave soldiers fighting on the front.”
Those who died were buried in the garden area of the castle, which, as we saw during our visit, is now a beautiful park for people to enjoy a good book or go with their families.
Our comments
Firstly, we visited the castle itself. The exhibition about the castle in 1916 and about the castle being a part of the red cross was very interesting but we must admit that the rest was rather boring. The castle was actually beautiful but there were not many interesting facts about it and you didn´t get much information. Additionally, it was a pity that the major part of the castle was not furnished so we just saw the empty rooms. Then we went to the garden which was pretty nice. People seem to like spending their time there: people were sleeping, playing the guitar and singing, studying, lying on the grass and so on. After that, we went to see the library which was actually like every other library, so not very interesting. In the end we saw the Royal Chapel. It was really small but really interesting and beautifully made.