Historical Collections Online
Search our Historical Collections Online, a sample of 10,000 artefacts from the National Museum of Ireland’s Historical, Military and Easter Week Collections, published as part of the Decade of Commemorations.
drawing / General Post Office, Dublin, c. 1820
Photograph of a drawing of the General Post Office, Dublin, drawn by John O'Brien, c. 1820. This building was erected about 1815 from designs by Francis Johnston, the founder of the Royal Hibernian Academy.
retirement certificate / Thomas Emor, G.P.O. Dublin
Large, framed certificate presented to Thomas Emor, Esq. It reads, "Address and Presentation to Thomas Emor, Esq., Sorting Office, G.P.O. Dublin". Underneath the text reads , "We Are Your Sincere Friends and Wellwishers", which is follwed by 26 signatures and the date of March 1904. An image of a...
stretcher /
Stretcher used in the G.P.O. during the Rising of 1916. An extemporised stretcher consisting of one pole (other missing) c. 6' long and a length of striped red, brown and white material bound on with twins.
note / General Post Office. 1916
Portion of G.P.O. flagstaff with authenticating note from Countess Markievicz. The piece of the wooden flag staff is a chip 2 ins. long x 25 ins. wide at its greatest width. The authenticating holograph note from Countess Markievicz is 7.4 x 3.1 ins. ruled white paper.
button / Irish Volunteers
An Irish Volunteer button. On face I Harp V; on back: Made in Ireland by (Quinn?) Belfast. No.525348. Found in 1933 in Friends' Field, Ballybough, a site where refuse from the ruins of the G.P.O. was dumped after the Rising in 1916.
lid / General Post Office, 1916
Metal top or lid of a glass inkwell, ex General Post Office, 1916. Brass lid stamped OS crowned. The glass fragments now in crystals, having been fused in the fire.
photograph / GPO, 1916
Photograph of the ruins of the General Post Office, after the 1916 Rising. Central News, 10 by 8 inches, taken from top of Nelson Pillar.
souvenir / GPO, 1916
A piece of barbed wire from the barricade erected by the Irish Volunteers opposite the General Post Office during Easter week, 1916.
envelope / 'Censored', G.P.O., 1916
One of five envelopes (which had passed through G.P.O. 1916 and bear Censorship - British? - tags) addressed to Messrs. Watkins, Jameson Pim & Co., Ltd., Ardee Street Brewery, Dublin, dated (postmarks) April 25, 1916 (? etc.) Came in while Volunteers in occupation and left there on the surrender....
envelope / 'Censored', G.P.O., 1916
One of five envelopes (which had passed through G.P.O. 1916 and bear Censorship - British? - tags) addressed to Messrs. Watkins, Jameson Pim & Co., Ltd., Ardee Street Brewery, Dublin, dated (postmarks) April 25, 1916 (? etc.) Came in while Volunteers in occupation and left there on the surrender....
envelope / 'Censored', G.P.O., 1916
One of five envelopes (which had passed through G.P.O. 1916 and bear Censorship - British? - tags) addressed to Messrs. Watkins, Jameson Pim & Co., Ltd., Ardee Street Brewery, Dublin, dated (postmarks) April 25, 1916 (? etc.) Came in while Volunteers in occupation and left there on the surrender....
envelope / 'Censored', G.P.O., 1916
One of five envelopes (which had passed through G.P.O. 1916 and bear Censorship - British? - tags) addressed to Messrs. Watkins, Jameson Pim & Co., Ltd., Ardee Street Brewery, Dublin, dated (postmarks) April 25, 1916 (? etc.) Came in while Volunteers in occupation and left there on the surrender....
envelope / 'Censored', G.P.O., 1916
One of five envelopes (which had passed through G.P.O. 1916 and bear Censorship - British? - tags) addressed to Messrs. Watkins, Jameson Pim & Co., Ltd., Ardee Street Brewery, Dublin, dated (postmarks) April 25, 1916 (? etc.) Came in while Volunteers in occupation and left there on the surrender....
rifle / Jack Byrne, Fianna Éireann
One of the American Boy Scout rifles of the type used by boys of Fianna Éireann. The boys subscribed and purchased their own weapons. The cost price was about 35/-. Considerable financial support for the Fianna Organisation came from honorary members who comprised the fathers and friends of the...
letter / Pearse Brothers, G.P.O., 1916
Letter or message of the Pearse brothers, Patrick and William, to their mother Margaret Pearse. Original, handwritten in pencil. From the General Post Office, Wednesday (undated) of Easter Week, describing the conditions and asking her not to worry..
sign / G.P.O., 1916
Sign, reading 'Postal Telegraph Office', recovered from the ruins of the General Post Office after the 1916 Rising by Mrs Grace Gifford Plunkett. Iron plate, enamelled white inscribed black.
shell (ammunition) / G.P.O., 1916
1916 Rising shell, ex. General Post Office. Twelve pounder shell recovered unexploded from the ruins of the G.P.O. in 1924. Charge removed.
shell (ammunition) / G.P.O., 1916
1916 Rising shell, found in the wreckage of the General Post Office, 1916.
drawing / The Birth of the Irish Republic
The original drawing, 'The Birth of the Irish Republic', by Walter Paget, 1916. Several of the principal leaders of the Rising, including Thomas Clarke, James Connolly wounded on stretcher, Winifred Carney and the Pearse brothers, are depicted in the blazing General Post Office in the final days of...