Tomorrow: unveiling of memorial to North King Street massacre (finally)

The RTÉ website is saying that tomorrow a memorial will finally be unveiled to the victims of the North King Street massacre in Easter Week 1916. Most Dubliners aren't even aware of what happened there, despite more people being murdered by British crown forces on the street than were murdered in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday in November 1920. Given this history alone, they should really change the street name while they're at it.


Memorial to North King St victims to be unveiled:

From this RTÉ article it all sounds strikingly like a Bloody Sunday 1972-style cover-up: "British troops killed 14 men and two teenage boys around North King St during the last days of the Rising.

The victims were mainly small business owners and employees who had remained on their premises to prevent looting.... Many of the bodies were buried by the troops in cellars and back gardens.

Some of the victims had been robbed of their valuables.... They claimed that ... the deceased had been found with weapons.

There was also the order issued by General Lowe that rebels were not to be taken prisoner.... The killings were raised in the House of Commons by Irish Party MPs and there were demands for a public inquiry. General Maxwell defended the soldiers actions although he admitted that "possibly unfortunate incidents" ["bordering on the reckless" in 1972] had occurred. The authorities halted the inquests, held a secret military inquiry that found no-one responsible and refused a public inquiry.

It was not until 2001 that a secret government memo was released which admitted that some of the troops could have been guilty of unlawful killing.

...'


I first read about this in John Dorney's article in 2012. It's an eye-opening read on this neglected part of our city's history (and also highlights that there was, contrary to the commonly-believed myth, substantial support for the insurgents from Dubliners during the Rising, as JJ Lee pointed out here [starting on bottom of page 28]).

"Fifteen civilians were shot or bayoneted to death by soldiers from the South Staffordshire regiment during the Easter Rising..."

I can't make it tomorrow so if anybody gets a photo of the new monument I, for one, would be interested in seeing a photo of it.

---

The commemoration begins at 2pm outside Kavanagh's pub on Aughrim Street, followed by a parade to North King Street for the unveiling.