Fri, Jan 10, 6:45 PM CST

The General Post Office of Dublin

Photography Architecture posted on Jul 12, 2011
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Description


In my last image you could see on the left a small portion of the General Post Office in Dublin. Here you can see it better. It is the headquarters of the Irish Post Office, the last of the great Georgian public buildings built in Dublin, and very important historically. It is the best known work of the Irish architect Francis Johnston. The foundation stone was laid in August of 1814, and the building opened for business on 6 January 1818. Above the six fluted ionic columns is the triangular tympana which once held the royal arms. The three statues are of Mercury (the messenger of the gods), Hibernia (representing Ireland), and Fidelity (who represents the trust of the nation in their postal service). These are 1933 replicas of the originals. On Easter Monday 24 April 1916, members of the Irish Volunteers, led by Patrick Pearse, the Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly and members of the Cumann na mBan (an Irish republican women's paramilitary organization) seized key locations mostly in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic independent of Britain. The rebel headquarters were located at the General Post Office which was where James Connolly (overall military commander) and four other military commanders including Pearse remained. When the GPO had been occupied Pearse read a Proclamation of the Republic and two republican flags were raised. The GPO was heavily shelled and abandoned by the rebels when a shell caused a fire. (The GPO was badly damaged and required exstensive restoration. There is a picture of it after the fighting at www.easter1916.net.) The rebels tunneled through the walls of neighboring buildings and took up a new position with Pearse commanding after Connolly was injured. Pearse issued an order for all companies to surrender on Saturday 29 April 1916. The GPO was the only post to be physically captured, the other posts surrendered after receiving the order from Pearse to do so. It was not until Sunday, when word got out to the other rebel garrisons, that fighting ended. Sixteen of the leaders were executed, fourteen of whom were buried together in a mass grave. While support for the rebellion was mixed in Dublin at the time of the Easter Rising, it grew in strength due to the British reaction to it. This very brief overview of the happenings of April 1916 was cobbled together by me mostly from various sites on the web (including wikipedia, Dublin Virtual Live, and BBC). It's pretty basic and I don't think there are any mistakes. One thing that that I found very interesting is the importance of World War I in the events in Ireland and in the direction the country took. In his book "Modern Ireland 1600-1972", R. F. Foster states that "The First World War should be seen as one of the most decisive events in modern Irish history." The study of WWI, and its effects on our time has fascinated me for a while. Barbara W. Tuchman in the forward to her book "The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914" wrote, "The Great War of 1914-18 lies like a band of scorched earth dividing that time from ours." If you made it this far, thanks for reading. :) As always thanks for viewing, and for previous comments and favs!

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Photograph Details
F Numberf/5.6
MakeCanon
ModelCanon EOS 450D
Shutter Speed1/1600
ISO Speed200
Focal Length11

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