Tuesday 2 February 2016

National Library launches 'Rising' photo exhibition

The 'Rising' exhibition will run until end of October
at the National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar
. Open Mon-Sat 10-5; Sundays Noon-5.
The National Library of Ireland’s National Photographic Archive has today launched ‘Rising’, a major photographic exhibition which showcases the Library's collection of rich imagery documenting the events and locations of 1916.

‘Rising’ draws on some of the most important collections of photographs at the National Library (NLI). In addition to showing the physical damage to the city centre, the exhibition features photographs relating to the arrests, courts martials and internments following the Rising, and the subsequent amnesty for prisoners as the British Government saw the tide turning for those involved in the insurrection.

It consists of 60 photographs, and includes audio records from selected letters and diaries detailing first-hand accounts of the Rising.

Speaking at the launch, curator Sara Smyth said: “’Rising’ paints a very vivid picture of the events and locations of 1916 and brings visitors into the world of those who experienced the Rising first hand. When we selected the content for the exhibition, we were keen to address certain questions: How did Dublin look during Easter Week 1916, as fighting raged and buildings fell? What kind of landscape, physical and political, was left after the surrender?

“There are a number of unusual images on display. They include a photograph of Dr Edmund J. McWeeney, a member of the public who, like many Dubliners, discovered the Proclamation posted all over the city on Easter Monday. There is also a photograph of a small group of Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army in the GPO during the Rising.”

For those who are unable to visit the National Photographic Archive in Dublin's Temple Bar, digitised versions of the photos in the exhbition can be found in the NLI's online catalogue. The exhibition includes images from the Keogh Collection, the Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Collection, the De Valera Collection, and various 1916 albums.