Dossier 6 - ‘My experiences in the 1916 Rising by Father Columbus OSFC’

2 Bound volumes; typescript; 42 pp

A record by Fr. Columbus Murphy OFM Cap. of events between 30 April and 4 May 1916. Most of the memoir refers to his interaction with British military officers and his efforts to minister to the rebel leaders prior to their executions in Kilmainham Jail. The memoir begins: ‘I have been asked repeatedly to write out a detailed and connected account of my personal experiences, what I actually saw and did during the Rising. At length I have decided to comply with the request. I do so however not with the intention of ever publishing this report. … As I sit then at my desk here in the silence and solitude of my monastic cell in Dublin, fourteen weeks have elapsed since those eventful days. I take up my pen. …’.

This memoir (the most extensive of all those compiled by the Capuchin participants in 1916) was published in its entirety in 'Analecta Hibernica', No. 47 (2016), pp 165-230. https://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/product/analecta-hibernica-no-47/

Available online at JSTOR at https://www.jstor.org/stable/44982046

Two copies. One of the copies has photographic postcard prints of the rebel leaders (Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Thomas J. Clarke and Edward Daly) pasted onto the end covers. The other copy has numerous illustrations, clippings and prints taken from contemporary pictorial record books and magazines on the Rising.

Available online at JSTOR at https://www.jstor.org/stable/44982046