The 1916 Rebellion Walking Tour

Tuesday mum, dad and I sauntered off to catch the 130 bus into town again. We were planning on doing the 1916 Rebellion Walking Tour. Dublin is adorned in flags celebrating the centenary of the Easter Rising which went on to change the course of Irish history.

Before the tour we managed to find the statute of Molly Molone,from the Irish ditty, "Cockles and Muscles". The jury is out on whether she was based on a real person or fictitious.

In Dublin's fair city,

Where the girls are so pretty,

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,

As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,

Through streets broad and narrow,

Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

We met our walking tour guide, Sean at The International Bar on Wicklow Street. This is one of the oldest family run pubs in Ireland and just across the road from one of the safe houses which the rebels  used during the Easter Rebellion.

We walked past the Bank of Ireland, the site of the Irish Houses of Parliament, a grand building with no windows. Apparently it inspired the phrase "daylight robbery" as a window tax was being levied at the time of its construction so all the windows were blocked up to avoid paying the tax.

Onward we roamed to Trinity College forecourt. Trinity was considered loyal to the union and thus when word came to them regarding an uprising only hundreds of meters from their doors they were suitably nervous. It would become a key site during the rebellion housing thousands of British Troops and still conducting student exams throughout much of the rebellion.

We headed down towards O'Connell Street and stopped at O'Connell Statue where bullet holes from the rebellion can still be seen. Can you spot the bullet holes?

We headed towards the GPO where the leaders of the rebellion had read the proclamation of an independent Ireland and set up a provisional government. By the end of the six day battle much of the GPO was destroyed. Its great colonnades intact but bearing the scares of canon fire and shrapnel.

The photo above shows the GPO with the Spire of Dublin towering. It was erected to replace the Nelson's Pillar which the IRA blew up on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rebellion. In truth the IRAs explosion caused damage to the statue but the Irish Army, along with their trained explosive team, were summarily engaged to remove the entire Pillar and managed to blow out every window in O'Connell Street.

We were led along the same streets that the GPO battalion had used to try to escape along small laneways and old terrace houses. The terrace houses that the rebels tunnelled through in an attempt to escape are currently under threat of demolition and a citizens injunction is in place.

The decision by the British Army to execute 16 of the rebels soon after the uprising would turn popular support away from the loyalists and would start the wheels turning for the independent Ireland we know today.

It was a great 2 and a bit hour tour and I would definitely recommend it at the grand old price of 13 Euro.