Belfast family witness chaos of Easter Rising (1916)

By Darryl Armitage
Published 12th May 2023, 11:00 BST
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Many column inches in the News Letter during this week in 1916 were devoted to reporting the Easter Rebellion that had left the city of Dublin a scene of destruction.

The News Letter spoke to one Belfast man who had returned north from Dublin with his family. He said: “We were in the finest possible position to get a view of what was going on. My wife, my two daughters, and I went to Dublin on Good Friday with the intention of returning to Belfast on Monday evening, but owing to the cutting off of all communication with the north we were compelled to remain in the city until Sunday afternoon, when we managed to get accommodation in a train leaving Amiens Street for Belfast.”

He continued: “We stayed in the College Hotel – next door to Trinity College and opposite the Bank of Ireland – and had an excellent view from the hotel windows of what was happening across the O’Connell Bridge and up Sackville Street, to a point beyond the General Post Office. We were right in the very heart of the trouble, and had a very interesting time.

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“On Easter Sunday we went all round Phoenix Park and in the evening attended service in the Methodist Church, St Stephen’s Green, and although we passed through the green on our way we saw nothing out of the ordinary there.

Souvenir hunters of all ages scrabble amongst the rubble in the streets of Dublin in the aftermath of the Sinn Fein 'Easter Rising' against British rule in Ireland. The rebellion, which began on the 24th April, claimed the lives of 794 civilians and 521 police and soldiers. Picture: PA Archive/PA ImagesSouvenir hunters of all ages scrabble amongst the rubble in the streets of Dublin in the aftermath of the Sinn Fein 'Easter Rising' against British rule in Ireland. The rebellion, which began on the 24th April, claimed the lives of 794 civilians and 521 police and soldiers. Picture: PA Archive/PA Images
Souvenir hunters of all ages scrabble amongst the rubble in the streets of Dublin in the aftermath of the Sinn Fein 'Easter Rising' against British rule in Ireland. The rebellion, which began on the 24th April, claimed the lives of 794 civilians and 521 police and soldiers. Picture: PA Archive/PA Images

“On Easter Monday morning we went to Bray, and on our returning to the station to take the train back to Dublin a jarvey said, ‘Do you want a car?’ I replied no. He said: ‘The lines are blocked and you cannot got a train.’ I thought it was a joke at first, but soon found out that there was no trains, so we took the car to Kingstown – beyond which the jarvey would not go – and went on to Blackrock in a tramcar, and then walked on, but eventually got a cab that took us right into the city.

“We went to Amiens Street to try to get a train to Belfast, but were told that a railway bridge had been blown up and that no trains were running. We returned to our hotel, and in the evening went right up Sackville Street for a walk. There was only a little firing at the time, but there was any amount of looting going on, the mob breaking open the shops and taking away anything and everything they fancied.”

Related topics:Belfast