1916 Whiskey

Beer and spirits was at the heart of events in 1916. Proclamation signatory Sean McDermott once worked as a barman in Belfast before turning his attention to more pressing matters. The rebels managed not to seize British Army barracks around the city or even the seat of The British Government in Ireland, Dublin Castle but did capture The Watkins Brewery on Ardee Street, The Jameson Distillery, Roe’s Distillery, Dublin City Distillery, and the Barmack Brewery and many public houses..

The Watkins Brewery raiding party was led by the teetotaller Con Colbert who was subsequently executed in the aftermath of the Rising. The brewery was unprotected except for a yard manager and was quickly captured by twenty rebels and the only counter attack they suffered from Monday to Wednesday was a large group of angry women, the wives and families of Irishmen serving in the British army, who demanded that the rebels go home ‘to their mammy’s and daddy’s’.

The Marrowbone Lane Distillery where Jameson whiskey was produced in great quantity was captured by Captain Seamus Murphy and his men. The military advantage of the distillery was the height of the chimneys and warehouses. 

A section from Eamonn Ceannt’s 4th Battalion seized Roe’s Distillery located at Mount Brown on James’s Street. Barmack’s Distillery on Fumbally Lane off Clanbrassil Street was seized by Captain Henderson. Despite the seizure of all these distilleries there was very little drunkenness from the rebels but much of the stock was looted by the poor of the city.

The Dublin City Distillery on Pearse Street was seized by Captain Cullen as part of Eamonn DeValera’s battalion who captured Boland’s Mill. DeValera hoisted the Irish flag, then a green flag with a gold Brian Boru harp at its centre on top of the Distillery. The British artillery and gunboat Helga shelled the distillery believing that this was the rebels’ location but in fact DeValera was located in the bakery watching the British destroy the wrong target. 

Kenny's James Street

To reinforce the notion that alcohol played a major part in one way or another in the Easter Rising, when the rebel prisoners were transferred to the Frongoch Internment camp in Wales they quickly realised the irony that the camp now being used as a prisoner of war camp was a former distillery.

Sympathetic publicans also assisted in the facilitation of Rising planning with publicans such as Sean O’Farrell who owned a bar at the corner of St Stephens Green and South King Street. Thirty six year old Eamon Morkan who with his brother Michael ran a bar on Queen Street was a Captain in the Volunteers while future leader of the Free State W.T. Cosgrave was a publicans son from James Street who fought in the nearby South Dublin Union one of the last outposts to surrender.   

Lambe's (Now Meagher's) Ballybough

Lambe’s public house on Richmond Road now Meagher’s of Ballybough was seized by rebels attempting to halt the advance of British troops from a training camp on Bull Island towards the centre of the city. They held the pub until they were ordered to fall back to the GPO

According to the Witness Statement of Harry Colley

       "I had discovered that men from my own Company under Frank Henderson and Oscar Traynor were             holding a house over Gilbey's at the corner of Fairview Strand which commanded the approach from             Dollymount and also Ballybough Bridge.

        As well as Gilbey's, our men also occupied Lambe's public house on Richmond Road (now               

        Meagher's). Frank Henderson was in charge of this outpost. A man named Sean Kerr was             

        Quartermaster and cook. I remember we commandeered bread from a baker's cart and a sheep from  

        an adjacent butcher's. Scouts on bicycles were thrown out along the Howth Road and through 

        Drumcondra. About 5 or 6 o'clock in the evening (Tuesday) we got orders to fall-in. We took with us 

        all spare arms, ammunition, equipment and food. We were paraded outside Gilbey's on Fairview 

        Strand and marched over Ballybough Bridge towards Summerhill."

 One of the barmen in Lambe's on that Easter Monday was John Gavan a member of  “F” Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. The 24 year old surrendered with his comrades and was interned after the Rising in Stafford Jail and the North Camp Frongoch until he was released August 1916.

The Grand Central O'Connell Street

There are some sites from the Rising that were not pubs at the time but are today and you can stroll in, have something to eat, perhaps a beer and soak up the atmosphere and imagine what it was like as a battlefield in the middle of the Rising.
The Grand Central in O'Connell Street was in 1916 Reis's Chambers and was home to the rebels very own radio station.
http://www.louisfitzgerald.com/grandcentral

The Schoolhouse on Northumberland Road was held be the rebels during the Battle of Mount Street and looks today exactly as it did in 1916.
http://www.schoolhousehotel.com/