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Easter Rising and Bolands Mill
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19-10-2012 2:54pm#1Hi all,
Someone posted a link in another thread to the Bolands Mill Wikipedia page. This page says the following:-
I'm interested in the part in bold. I was always led to believe that it was the Flour Mill that was occupied by the rebel forces during the Rising. I've done a quick google and the only thing I could find was this which saysJump to: navigation, search
Boland's Mill
Boland's Mill is located on the Grand Canal Dock in Dublin, Ireland at the corner of Pearse Street and Barrow St. The majority of the complex consists of concrete silos built between the 1940s and 1960s. The mill stopped production in 2001 and the site is now derelict. Within the complex of buildings, the older stone block buildings facing onto Ringsend Road and onto Grand Canal Dock together with two terraced houses on Barrow street are listed as protected buildings by Dublin City Council. The taller concrete silos on the site are not protected structures. [1] The site has planning permission for an office, residential and retail/hotel redevelopment granted by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (under Section 25 of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority Act, 1997).[2]
This site should not be confused with the old Bolands Biscuit Mills building on the corner of Grand Canal Street and Macken Street now known as the Treasury Building (approximately 500 metres away) that played an integral part of the 1916 Rising and was occupied by Éamon de Valera who would later be President of Ireland, a fact commemorated by a plaque on the wall of the building along Macken Street. Following its closure it was substantially redeveloped as an office building in the late 1980s by Treasury Holdings. The Treasury Building's occupants currently include the National Treasury Management Agency and the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).
Can anyone confirm exactly where they occupied and link me to some more details?The 3rd Battalion under Commandant Eamon de Valera occupied Boland’s bakery around the corner from the flour mills, one mile to the south-east of the GPO, on Grand Canal Dock
Thanks for any help.0
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The Helga was a small fishery research and protection cruiser with two 12 pounder (76mm bore) artillery guns.
From its mooring opposite the Custom House it shelled Liberty Hall point blank - the building was empty - its first shot hitting the metal railway bridge over the Liffey which created a clang that was heard across the city and its fire was joined by machine gun fire from the British Army which set up positions across the River Liffey and joined later by an artillery gun positioned at Tara Street.
When the British troops marching from Kingstown ran right into a rebel ambush at the canal bridge on Northumberland Road, a British officer had one of the 12 pounder guns detached from the Helga and was going to use it to shell the rebel strongpoint in Clanwilliam House from the direction of Percy Place while a machine gun in the nearby church tower gave covering fire. Before he got it ready the rebel position was cleared and Boland's Mill further up to the canal became the target.
De Valera told his men to set up a tricolor flag on another building to draw fire away from his battalion's position.
The British officer directed fire at the second building but the shells over shot and landed in the Liffey near the Helga.
The commander of the Helga believed the rebels had artillery guns and fired back at the British gun on Percy Place.
The real bombardment to the center of Dublin city was from British Army artillery guns set up inside the grounds of Trinity College which was defended by students armed with rifles who occupied the rooftops and traded fire with rebels across the river and eventually as the British pushed into the O'Connell Street area from multiple directions another unit of the British artillery guns were also firing from the direction of the Grangegorman lunatic hospital.
A heavy gun was set up on D'Olier Street to blast the rebel strong points over looking O'Connell Bridge. The area from O'Connell Bridge as far as Nelson's Pillar and the GPO was gutted or reduced to rubble by the infernos that resulted.
A machine gunners and snipers made it impossible to cross O'Connell Street while British troops also had Abbey and Henry Street covered.
The only route the survivors of the defenders of the GPO could go was into buildings on Moore Street where they were eventually cornered.
Some of the fires which destroyed the O'Connell area were also set by mobs of looters and the blazes spread through department stores and consumed their contents.
De Valera's men were kept bottled up in Boland's Mill not doing very much the same as Sean McDonagh's men in Jacob's Biscuit Factory to the south.
Only a handful of men held up the British at Northumberland Road and Mount Street Bridge where hundreds were killed or wounded.
For some bizarre reason the British insisted on repeatedly charging Clanwilliam House even though they could have gone down the canal and crossed at the next bridge where there was no hold up.
If more of the rebels had been deployed in dispersed strong points along the canal bridges and more Irish Volunteers had actually come out to fight the British would have found it very difficult indeed to penetrate the city center like they did.
The rebel strategy was to just occupy buildings and hold at as long as possible.
Heroic and melodramatic but ultimately futile.0 -
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The poor "Helga" was far removed from being a battleship as you can see from this postcard of her in use with the Irish Naval Service renamed "Muirchu". The ship was ultimately sold to Hammond Lane for scrap but sank off the south coast (nr.Saltee Islands) on the 8th May, 1947 on her way to Dublin for breaking.
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