Shocking Condition of Dublin

Galway Pilot, May 6th 1916

Accounts from Dublin represent the city as in a shocking condition. There was terrible loss of life. It is stated there could not have been less than a thousand causalities. Some districts are in ruins. Phibsborough is all broken up and battered to pieces. The street fighting in various parts of the city was something appalling. Large hotels and other points of vantage held by the insurgents were bombarded and knocked into heaps of rubbish. Several places took fire. The destruction of life and property was awful. It is calculated that the loss of house property alone will run into millions.

On Thursday evening this week, between four and five o'clock, for the first time since the trains were stopped on Easter Monday, a bundle of Dublin papers reached Galway. "The Irish Times" reduced to less than half the ordinary size was the only Dublin paper that came and up to that we had no accurate idea of what was in progress in the metropolis. There was a vague rumour that an insurrection had broken out and that Dublin was in the hands of the insurgents. But what actually happened nobody knew. There was no train, no post and no telegraph service. News was rigorously shut out, and all parties were completely in the dark as to what was happening in Dublin. The first intimation of a bombardment was a report that came by sea that Liberty Hall was shelled. Then came a rumour that Dublin was on fire, and reports of all kinds spread that the dead were lying in heaps in the streets. According to "The Irish Times" to hand, it would appear that it was not war vessels in the harbour that shelled the city, but it was done by artillery that arrived there. On Tuesday night artillery arrived at Trinity College, and it was decided to start the shelling next morning. In order, however, to secure a proper footing for the guns, the pavement of the streets had to be dug up. If soldiers attempted to do that they would be at once picked off by snipers. Civilians were set to work under the pretence that they were trying to regulate the gas mains. But so firm was the pavement that only two stones could be removed in half an hour, and the crow—bars were broken. It was given up, the guns were rushed out, and 18 pounders opened fire at once.

The result of the shelling was something terrible. With the first shot every pane of glass in that and in the adjoining streets was smashed and in a short time Liberty Hall was laid in ruins.

Many other buildings suffered a similar fate. Nothing but a heap of stones marks the spot where the "Freeman's Journal" office stood.

Wherever the insurgents took cover in a building the place was shelled by the artillery, and at the same time machine guns and rifles from the insurgents replied vigorously to the artillery fire.

In the early part of the outbreak the insurgents took possession of the Hotel Metropole, the Post Office, Boland's Bakery and other buildings, manning them with riflemen and defending them with machine guns.

Loop holes were broken out in the walls, and a desperate rifle and machine guns fire was poured out on the military. Barricades consisting of furniture, chairs, tables, sofas, or anything to hand were thrown up, and the street fighting was something terrible.

Some regiments of military that attempted to force their way through streets were shot down by a cross fire from riflemen and machine guns, posted in the hotels and other large buildings. Several of the streets were rendered impassable.

The flag of the Irish Republic which was floated from the roof of the General Post Office in O'Connell Street, now a complete ruin, was according to the "Daily Sketch" seized by the military after the bombardment. Only the four walls of the Post Office are now standing.

The Hotel Metropole has entirely disappeared. The Imperial Hotel is a heap of rubbish. Clery's great drapery warehouse is just a pile of stones. The DMC Restaurant, the Munster Bank, the Hibernian Bank, and several other prominent buildings are now mounds of debris, and quite unrecognisable.

Now that quiet reigns, the police and military have been called off and the residents in Dublin in crowds and roaming the streets, looking in amazement at the scenes of the terrible conflict and searching for mementoes of the outbreak.