Family Fortunes: Insurers refused to pay my grandmother for Rising damage

The photograph is of my grandmother, Mary Leonard. Mary, a Dubliner, married Pat Plunkett in 1909. They lived initially on Mount Street, but when Mary inherited money from her grandmother, they bought 16 Moore Street in 1914 and moved there. At that time, many families lived over their businesses in Dublin city centre.

In Easter week 1916, my grandmother was seven months pregnant. At the start of the rising Pat drove her and their children, Ciss, John and my mother Evelyn, by pony and trap to his family’s farm in Hawkinstown, Co Meath. He returned to Dublin, as he had livestock in a yard where the Ilac Centre is now.

After the surrender, Mary returned home. I can only imagine her shock at the condition of her house, which had been the final headquarters of the leaders of the Rising. One wall had been tunnelled through, others scarred by bullets, bed linen had been used for the wounded and the dining room table was damaged.

Insurers refused to pay for any damage incurred during the uprising; business owners were told to submit claims to the State. Mary made a claim for damages but it was rejected, as it was outside the deadline. Years later a neighbour of my parents in Glasnevin, who had been in Cumann na mBan, recalled how she had been instructed to call to the house and offer payment for the linen. Mary refused to accept this payment, as by then, like most Dubliners, she fully supported the volunteers.

No 16 was involved in a further drama during the war of independence. A woman ran into the shop pushing a pram and screaming for Mary. The distraught woman then collapsed. When Mary arrived, she lifted the baby out of the pram and found several guns in it. The poor woman had been taking her baby for a walk; an ambush had been mounted by the volunteers, and during their getaway they ran past the pram and pushed the guns into it.

I never knew Mary; she died in 1932, aged 43. However, I am sure she would be delighted with the restoration of her house. There is another item of hers in State hands. Her photograph had hung on the wall of her sitting room but was taken down: on the cardboard backing mount, Patrick Pearse drafted the surrender. The family found this among the debris when they returned home. I have no idea what happened it then or how the National Library acquired it. If they feel like returning it, we will happily put it back behind Mary’s photograph.

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