Dublin City Council has acquired a unique Dublin Fire Brigade Ambulance log-book which covers the period of the Easter Rising, 24-29 April 1916. The log-book relates to Tara Street Fire Station and records hour-by-hour the response of the Dublin ambulance service to those injured in the Rising.
Details are given regarding the call-out of ambulances throughout Easter Week, giving names, addresses and ages of victims with an account of injuries suffered and the name of the hospital to which they were delivered. Victims include civilians (including children) and military personnel – but not members of the Irish Volunteers or Irish Citizen Army, as each garrison had its own cohort of nurses. As the week progresses, there are more entries recording fires in the city and towards the end of the week, both the ambulance and fire brigade are forbidden by Lieutenant Myers from responding to calls within the area of the Rising, as he deemed this to be too dangerous. Inserted into the volume are loose-leaves giving an account, compiled in July 1916, of the activities of Thomas Street Fire Station during the 1916 Rising.
Lord Mayor Christy Burke will be presented with the Log-Book in the Mansion House at 2.00 p.m. on Thursday 20th November 2014. The Lord Mayor remarked “I am delighted that Dublin City Council has obtained this important contemporary record of the 1916 Rising. This volume details the impact of the Rising on Dublin and particularly the citizens who were caught up in these historic events. It also records the bravery of those who staffed the ambulance and fire brigade services, continuing to look after the public even under fire.”
The volume will be available for viewing from Monday 24th November at Dublin City Library & Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2. Plans are also underway to digitise the volume and to publish its contents on Dublin City Council’s website.
