25-09-2013 Pearse and 1913: The View From A Hermitage An OPW exhibition at the Pearse Museum, St. Enda’s Park, Rathfarnham

Wednesday 25th September

Press Release

The Office of Public Works is delighted to announce the Pearse Museum’s latest temporary exhibition Patrick Pearse and 1913: The View From A Hermitage.

Patrick Pearse described the months between June 1913 and January 1914 as “a period which, when things assume their proper perspective, will probably be regarded as the most important in recent Irish history”. This exhibition features images and artefacts, which illustrate a collection of articles he originally published in the Irish Freedom newspaper during that period under the title “From A Hermitage”.  Pearse wrote about a variety of contemporary issues in these articles, from the public criticisms of Douglas Hyde’s leadership of the Gaelic League to the 1913 Lockout. The articles reflect Pearse’s increasingly radical outlook and conclude with the foundation of the Irish Volunteers, an event that he celebrated as a sign that Ireland was reconnecting with its revolutionary past.

Pearse also makes reference to a tragedy, which occurred on 2 September 1913 when two dilapidated tenement house on Church St. collapsed killing seven people. He wrote that:

“There are tenement rooms in Dublin in which over a dozen persons live, eat and sleep. High rents are paid for these rooms, rents which in cities like Birmingham would command neat four roomed cottages with gardens. The tenement houses of Dublin are so rotten that they periodically collapse upon their inhabitants, and if the inhabitants collect in the streets to discuss matters the police baton them to death.”

As a result of the collapse of No. 66 and 67 Church St, the Dublin Housing Inquiry was set up in November 1913 to investigate housing conditions in Dublin.

The exhibition also includes a selection of photographs taken by John Cooke who gave evidence to the inquiry on behalf of the National Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children. These images are now held by the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland who have kindly made them available for this exhibition.

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For further information, please contact pressoffice@opw.ie or 046 947 6194

The Pearse Museum, St. Enda’s Park, Grange Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16 is open from 9.30am to 5.30pm (4pm from November) and is open daily (closed Tuesdays). The exhibition runs until 31 January 2014 and admission is free. High quality images available on request.