By Dan Walsh
Pat Doran was born and raised in Enniscorthy with a vague knowledge and awareness of the 1916 Easter Rising in the town, however, on the discovery that two of his great-grandfathers were willing participants he was inspired to pursue further research.
Pat’s detailed research has uncovered the names of individuals who either participated in the Easter Rising in Enniscorthy or were arrested and detained in the aftermath and the fruit of his research is found in a new book, only available in the past two weeks, entitled; Enniscorthy; The Forgotten Republic.
The Easter Rising began on Monday, April 24th in Dublin when approximately 1,200 men and women from the Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan seized strategic sites in Dublin, including the GPO (General Post Office) in Sackville St, later renamed O’Connell St. Outside of Dublin Enniscorthy was the only location where the Volunteers would raise the Tricolour.
“The fact that from April 27th to May 1st 1916, Enniscorthy was an Independent Republic is rarely mentioned,” said Pat, who added; “The reality that the local Volunteer force took control of the town and its citizens, confined the RIC to barracks, marched to Ferns and took it over and were nearly at Camolin when orders to surrender from Padraig Pearse (from his cell in Arbour Hill) came to surrender is barely acknowledged.”
In and around Enniscorthy the names and stories of the leaders have gone down in local folklore, however, the rank-and-file participants are lucky if their names are remembered by anybody outside their families and even some may not be remembered by their own.
Pat Doran has brought the subs onto the pitch through the pages of this fine publication and has earnestly toiled to ensure that nobody is intentionally forgotten but given their rightful place in the history of a town that they were willing to fight and die for around a century ago.
Pat Doran has done a great archival service in compiling this book and filling in mini-biographies of so many familiar names found abundantly in Enniscorthy and district, like Ferns, Ballindaggin and Camolin, and the Shannon side of the River Slaney – including Byrne, Balfe, Breen, Boyne, Carroll, Carty, Cleary, Colfer, Courtney, Connolly, Cullen, Davis, Devereux, Donohoe, Doyle, Dwyer, Dunbar, Ennis, Franklin, Goff, Hiney, Hyland, Keegan, Kehoe, Kelly, Kavanagh, Leacy, Murphy, Nolan, O’Brien, O’Byrne, O’Connor, O’Leary, O’Neill, O’Reilly, O’Rourke, O’Toole, Pierce, Rafter, Redmond, Roche, Ronan, Sinnott, Thorpe, Tobin, Tyrell, Wafer, Walsh, Whelan, Webster, Wilson and Wiles, to name just a small number.
Enniscorthy; The Forgotten Republic by Pat Doran, paperback, 280 pages, no illustrations, available at Delaney’s Newsagent, Rafter St., Enniscorthy, €15. ISBN-13-979-8-4854-4558-4
PAT DORAN will be a guest on Mid Week Voices (South East Radio, 95.6 and 96.4FM, next Wednesday, at 8pm) talking to DAN WALSH and his listeners about his first publication Enniscorthy; The Forgotten Republic.
WexfordLocal.com 