A temperamental printing press, a shortage of ink and heightened secrecy resulted in challenges in producing the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The story behind the logistics of arguably Ireland’s most acclaimed document is told at an exhibition in University College Cork’s Boole Library.
Printed in Defiance: Making the 1916 Proclamation explores the provenance of the university’s copy of the proclamation. It originally belonged to Richard Gogan (1899-1982). It is said that he was the youngest member of the rebel garrison in the GPO during the 1916 Rising.
He was one of James Connolly’s stretcher-bearers, carrying the wounded leader from the burning GPO with heavy gunfire raging. It’s thought he may have carried this copy of the proclamation with him. He became a politician later in life, serving as TD for Dublin Northwest from 1954-1977. He was also lord mayor of Dublin.
Gogan’s daughter, Gráinne Gogan-Logan wrote that the printer of the proclamation, Christopher Brady, examined the copy of the proclamation in 1940 and confirmed that it was an original, printed by him on Easter Sunday 1916. She also said that this copy was her father’s “proudest possession”.
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In 1998, philanthropists Liam and Kaye Cronin came into possession of this proclamation through Eamonn de Burca, an Irish antiquarian bookseller and manuscript dealer based in Dublin. The couple donated the document to UCC.
Even immediately after the Rising, the historical significance of the proclamation was recognised. On discovering type left in the press (an old Wharfedale Double-Crown printing machine), British soldiers printed their own souvenir copies of the proclamation.
The press was known as the “workhorse” because of its rate of productivity. It was capable of printing 800 pages in an hour. Most of the original prints were destroyed in fires during the Easter Rising. About 30 original copies were placed in national institutions. Authentic copies of the proclamation are rare.
As well as Brady, the other two employees of Connolly’s newspaper, The Workers Republic, tasked with producing the proclamation, were compositors Michael Molloy and Liam O’Brien. All were members of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU).
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The proclamation is a single printed broadsheet with the paper sourced by Connolly from the Swift Brook Paper Mills in Saggart, Co Dublin. The ink is a black carbon and oil mixture. The print shows physical damage which is not surprising given its large size (76cm x 49cm).
In the lead-up to the insurrection, tension escalated across Dublin. Police detectives kept an eye on rebel leaders and Liberty Hall was under constant surveillance. About two weeks before the Rising, detectives raided the building but were driven out at gunpoint by ITGWU members, Connolly, Countess Markievicz and Helena Moloney.
After that, armed members of the Irish Citizen Army guarded Liberty Hall round-the-clock. The plan was to print the proclamation inside the building using the ITGWU press, hidden behind the co-operative shop run by Markievicz and Moloney.
Secrecy and timing were crucial. Anyone printing or possessing the proclamation would be considered guilty of treason under British law and risked death.
The press lacked sufficient type. Connolly ordered Molloy to source more. After two refusals, he secured type from a reluctant employee at West’s Printers on Stafford Street. A member of the ITGWU nicknamed “the Dazzler” transported the heavy load to Liberty Hall using a handcart. He narrowly evaded a British army patrol.
On Easter Sunday, the printers were brought into a guarded room and given a handwritten proclamation, newly signed by the seven rebel leaders. That day, the insurrection was postponed for 24 hours due to confusion following opposition from Irish Volunteer commander, Eoin MacNeill.
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Despite delays and drawbacks, 2,500 copies were printed by early Easter Monday. They were brought to the GPO and distributed across the city by rebels and their supporters.
Specialist conservation work at UCC Library has led to new insights into the proclamation. Conservators documented the damage to the proclamation, due to ageing. They revealed clues as to how this copy of the proclamation was handled. Old crease marks suggest it was once folded into a small enough size that allowed it to be carried – possibly smuggled out of the GPO in a pocket.
Conservation treatment has since stabilised the document, allowing for safe display and long-term preservation.
The exhibition (on until September 13th) invites viewers to reflect on how fragile heritage is made, protected and remembered. Every variation in ink, every altered letter and every incidental line tells the story of the urgency, creativity and dogged determination involved in making the document.
In the initial stages of producing the proclamation, there was an attempt to set the entire document at the one time. However, this was found to be unviable as there was not enough type available. It had to be set in two stages.
“The proclamation is now ingrained in our collective memory as a document of our national history,” says Dr John Borgonovo, senior lecturer at UCC’s School of History. “Despite being produced under intense pressure and in secrecy, this hastily printed document remains a powerful and enduring symbol of the independent Irish State.”
