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Eamonns Walking Tours of Dublin, Merrion Square, Dublin (2024)

30/10/2022

It may seem like a gigantic leap to make a connection with an ancient Celtic festival in pagan Ireland to the celebration of Halloween, one of the most popular traditions in the United States of America (USA). The bonfires, pranks (tricks-or-treating), and costumes associated with Halloween (All Saints or All Hallows Eve hence the name Halloween) almost certainly has its origins In Celtic Ireland.

On top of what is now called The Hill of Ward, situated near the small town of Athboy in County Meath, the ancient Celtic fire festival of Samhain was celebrated. Samhain marked the end of harvest and Summer and consequently the beginning of Winter. It was celebrated by lighting bonfires on top of that hill which according to legend was called Tlachtga after a sun goddess. The festival of Samhain began at sunset on the 31st October (the eve of the 1st of November) and the Celts believed that this was the time of transition, when the spirits of the dead could move freely among the living and into the next life. Two major Catholic feast days are All Saints Day (1st November) and All Souls Day (2nd November). Perhaps as Christianity was establishing itself in Ireland it was easier to win pagans over to Christian beliefs when some of the ancient pagan traditions were incorporated into the new religion?

The very heavy emigration of mostly Catholic Irish to the USA during the mid to late 19th century is thought to have greatly increased the popularity of Halloween there. The Irish brought their traditions of celebrating Halloween with them to their new home across the Atlantic Ocean. In Ireland when I was growing up, carved and hollowed out turnips often resembling grotesque human faces were illuminated on the inside and were traditionally used to scare away evil spirits/ghosts. Maybe it is for the same reason that pumpkins (which are harvested in the Autumn in the USA and are traditionally used to celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving) have similar frightening faces carved into them? However, in the accompanying picture the pumpkin is made of plastic and the features are painted rather than carved. A sign of modernity perhaps?

18/09/2022

The picture is of the Irish National Flag (the Tricolour) flying at half-mast in the grounds if St Patrick's Cathedral (Church of Ireland) Dublin. The photograph was taken just a few days ago so I assume that the flag at half-mast is a mark of respect for the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II. When I read history one of my constant observations is that irony is almost always there in the unfolding of major events and their subsequent ramifications.

The original lrish Tricolour was made by a group of women in Paris and presented to Thomas Francis Meagher (Young Irelander) in 1848. The year is very significant as this was the time when republican inspired revolutions had broken out across Europe which attempted to abolish monarchies and change systems of government/established political regimes in many European countries. The Tricolour - as the name suggests – is composed of three colours: the green panel represents the Gaelic/Anglo-Norman largely Catholic part of the population; the orange panel represents the Unionist/British largely Protestant (supporters of William of Orange) population and the white panel in the centre represents a lasting peace between the two traditions. In other words, it represents inclusivity and respect for differences in people’s religion, personal background and political persuasion.

The lrish Tricolour has an illustrious place in Irish history. It is honoured in Ireland because of the aspiration it defines (through it colours) and also because it was one of the flags hoisted and flown above the roof of the General Post Office (Henry Street corner) during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. The Easter Rising was the seminal event in modern Irish history as it give birth to the Irish state. The Rising (when you read the 1916 Proclamation that sets out its aims and justification) was about breaking the links with the United Kingdom and establishing an independent Irish Republic. It is important to note that the proclamation is addressed directly to the Irish people and not to the British King Emperor, George V. The opening sentence in the main body of text is striking given the context of the time. The words, "Irishmen and Irishwomen ….", explicitly make clear that men and women are full citizens of the Republic. Furthermore, the words, “The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and opportunities to all its citizens …” also expressly states that the Republic would be fully inclusive. There is much more to examine in the proclamation but this will suffice for now. Consequently, the flying of the Irish Tricolour at half-mast to show respect for a dead British monarch may seem a contradiction, reading the 1916 Proclamation and understanding the sentiment of the Tricolour means that it is not.

21/08/2022

The accompanying picture shows the slender granite obelisk (designed by Raymond McGrath) on Leinster Lawn at the rear of Leinster House where the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) resides. It was erected as recently as 1950. The obelisk stands on the site of an earlier temporary monument representing a cenotaph (empty tomb) unveiled in 1923. The obelisk honours three men, two of whom died in violent circumstances at the hands of fellow Irish men. It is also of interest that two of those honoured on the obelisk played the most prominent parts in negotiating the Anglo-Irish Treaty that led to the creation of the Irish Free State but they would not live long enough to see it officially established on the 6th December 1922. In January 1922, the Dáil ratified the treaty by a narrow margin, Arthur Griffith was elected President of Dáil Éireann (Irish Assembly/Lower House of Irish parliament) and Michael Collins became leader of the Provisional Government which was to administer the terms of the Treaty during the transition period leading up to the foundation of the Irish Free State. The terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty had made Southern Ireland a self-governing dominion but not an independent sovereign republic. This was the chief cause of the Irish Civil War.

The first of the two men who had signed the treaty to die was Arthur Griffith. He died on the 12th of August 1922 from natural causes (cerebral hemorrhage). Griffith had founded the Irish nationalist political party, Sinn Féin (We Ourselves) in 1905, and it quickly grew after the 1916 Easter Rising to become the largest political party in Ireland. Griffith was one of the key figures in the tense negotiations which led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and was a signatory to it. It is crucially important in order to understand later events to remember that the treaty’s most controversial clauses would lead directly to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War (1922-23). However, the new Irish Provisional government immediately faced multiple serious challenges, not only to its authority but to its very existence. The Sinn Féin party split over dominion status and so had the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The pressure on Griffith was immense and within a very short space of time the Irish Civil War broke out on the 28th June 1922 (see my FB Post on 28th June 2022 for background information). Very shortly after Griffith’s sudden and unexpected death there was to be another enormous blow to the emerging Irish state.

Michael Collins had and still has superhero status in Ireland. He was a very charismatic figure with a forceful personality allied with a strong practical sense of what could and could not be achieved. His reputation as the intelligence mastermind of the IRA guerrilla campaign against British Crown forces during the Irish War of Independence (1919-21) can not be overstated. However, that is absolutely not to imply that there were no other outstanding figures on both sides of the civil war who firmly believed that their cause was just and gave their lives for that cause. But in terms of popular admiration/adulation Michael Collins is the clear winner. Collins became Commander in Chief of the pro-Treaty National Army against the anti-Treaty IRA in July 1922. The Irish Civil War had broken out on the 28th June 1922, and the fighting had soon spread from Dublin to the south of the country. Michael Collins in his role as Commander in Chief of the National Army was on a military inspection tour of west Cork. However, as he was such a popular figure word had got out that Collins was in the west of the county and consequently an ambush had been prepared by an anti-Treaty IRA unit to assassinate him. And so it came to be. On the evening of the 22nd of August, at a place called Béal na Bláth, near a bend on a narrow country road the small convoy – some would say too small – carrying Collins and his military protection came under rifle fire. Collins was shot in the head and he died instantly. He was only 31 years of age and it is more than ironic that he was killed in the county that he was born in. The attendance at his funeral in Dublin was huge, in a city that was well used to such massive spectacular events. Collins was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, where his grave is still a place of veneration (and that at times is too small a word) for many. After the death of Collins the war became much more bitter and vengeful with awful atrocities carried out by both sides.

There is a third man honoured on the obelisk and his name is Kevin O'Higgins. He was a member of, Sinn Féin and in 1922 was appointed Minister for Home Affairs. However, he was especially hated by many anti-Treaty republicans for having signed the ex*****on orders for 77 republican prisoners during the civil war. He had held an uncompromising harsh position and he never wavered from it. For example, prominent among those seventy-seven who were executed was Rory O’Connor who had been best man at his wedding. Some years after the civil war ended Kevin O'Higgins met a violent end. On Sunday, the 10th of July 1927, while he was walking to mass in Booterstown, Dublin, he was shot dead by a small number of IRA men. There can be little doubt that the signature of Kevin O’Higgins on those ex*****on orders was the main motivating factor for his assassination. From a personal perspective, I think there is very little critical examination of the causes of the Irish Civil War. It is an absolutely crucial period in Irish history and I think embarrassment at the atrocities committed by both sides in the conflict is the main reason for this failure. My opinion only.

01/08/2022

When walking along a Dublin street recently I casually looked up for no particular reason other than it being a habit of mine. I always feel that if people did this more often they would sometimes be rewarded with unexpected interesting delights. Although, on a note of caution, if you were to look up too often as you walked the unexpected may not be a very pleasant experience - tripping over a paving slab for example or even something worse! What I saw high up on a wall was a “ghost sign”. It was weathered over time and the lettering is very faint but still legible. The words on the sign (see picture) reads, “To His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant”. It is still possible to observe that the words are contained within a shield outline that was painted on a red brick wall many years ago. One thing is sure this ghost sign must have been painted before the 8th of December 1922 as that was the date when the post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was abolished. A ghost sign on a building usually advertises the name of a business and/or service that now no longer exists. In this particular case (a rare one I think), it is a title of a position that is defunct and has been for a hundred years. I have no supporting evidence, but perhaps there was a business within the building on which the sign is displayed that once supplied some kind of a service to the Lord Lieutenant.
In any case, reading the sign prompted me to think of Ireland’s often fractious political relationship with its closest neighbour, Great Britain. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, more often called the Viceroy (meaning deputy King) was in effect the British monarchs representative in Ireland. British monarchs did not tend to come to Ireland too often. Before the beginning of the 19th century the Lord Lieutenant had immense political power and influence in Ireland. However, from the time of the Act of Union in 1800 when all of Ireland was brought into the United Kingdom (UK) a noticeable change in the power structure slowly began to emerge. As the 19th century progressed so also the political power of the Chief Secretary for Ireland increased. By the end of the 19th century, the Chief Secretary was effectively the Prime Minister of Ireland (under British rule) in all but name. Correspondingly, the role of the Lord Lieutenant became increasingly ceremonial in nature.
I have to say the wording of the sign almost jumped out at me, not only because it was totally unexpected, but because of what it stated. Ireland has been a republic since 1949 and reading the title Lord Lieutenant from a sign on a building in Dublin city in the 21st century comes as a shock. The second word on the sign is “His” and that tells us a lot as the position was always held by a male. Also, the word, “Excellency” suggests a person who ranked very high in an hierarchical society and has a very high level of authority. This ghost sign is a visible reminder of British rule in Ireland over one hundred years ago. History is everywhere, you just need to look up from time to time.

31/07/2022

When walking along a Dublin street recently I casually looked up for no particular reason other than it being a habit of mine. I always feel that if people did this more often they would sometimes be rewarded with unexpected interesting delights. Although, on a note of caution, if you were to look up too often as you walked the unexpected may not be a very pleasant experience - tripping over a paving slab for example or even something worse! What I saw high up on a wall was a “ghost sign”. It was weathered over time and the lettering is very faint but still legible. The words on the sign (see picture) reads, “To His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant”. It is still possible to observe that the words are contained within a shield outline that was painted on a red brick wall many years ago. One thing is sure this ghost sign must have been painted before the 8th of December 1922 as that was the date when the post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was abolished. A ghost sign on a building usually advertises the name of a business and/or service that now no longer exists. In this particular case (a rare one I think), it is a title of a position that is defunct and has been for a hundred years. I have no supporting evidence, but perhaps there was a business within the building on which the sign is displayed that once supplied some kind of a service to the Lord Lieutenant.

In any case, reading the sign prompted me to think of Ireland’s often fractious political relationship with its closest neighbour, Great Britain. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, more often called the Viceroy (meaning deputy King) was in effect the British monarchs representative in Ireland. British monarchs did not tend to come to Ireland too often. Before the beginning of the 19th century the Lord Lieutenant had immense political power and influence in Ireland. However, from the time of the Act of Union in 1800 when all of Ireland was brought into the United Kingdom (UK) a noticeable change in the power structure slowly began to emerge. As the 19th century progressed so also the political power of the Chief Secretary for Ireland increased. By the end of the 19th century, the Chief Secretary was effectively the Prime Minister of Ireland (under British rule) in all but name. Correspondingly, the role of the Lord Lieutenant became increasingly ceremonial in nature.

I have to say the wording of the sign almost jumped out at me, not only because it was totally unexpected, but because of what it stated. Ireland has been a republic since 1949 and reading the title Lord Lieutenant from a sign on a building in Dublin city in the 21st century comes as a shock. The second word on the sign is “His” and that tells us a lot as the position was always held by a male. Also, the word, “Excellency” suggests a person who ranked very high in an hierarchical society and has a very high level of authority. This ghost sign is a visible reminder of British rule in Ireland over one hundred years ago. History is everywhere, you just need to look up from time to time.

28/06/2022

If we look at the picture that accompanies this post and imagine for a moment that the streetscape is without any 21st century trappings at all, then we can then more easily transport our minds back to the 28th of June 1922. Directly in front of us is the Four Courts and its complex of associated buildings sitting on the north bank of the River Liffey along Inns Quay in Dublin. Spanning the narrow river is the O’Donovan Rossa Bridge, part of which is visible (right of picture). This photograph was taken from Winetavern Street on the south bank and as we can see the Four Courts is very close. Indeed, you might almost say it is at point blank range. On that fateful day in late June 1922, pro-Treaty soldiers of the newly formed Irish National Army in Winetavern Street were firing shells from an 18-pounder field gun at the Four Courts. The complex of buildings that comprised the Four Courts was garrisoned by fellow Irishmen who had turned the building into an improvised fortress. The view that the picture gives us of the Four Courts is approximately the same view that those National Army soldiers had as they bombarded the garrison across the river. There were only two options on offer, surrender or suffer the consequences. This military action was the start of the Irish Civil War and although short in duration that war left a legacy of bitterness down through the generations. How and why did this war come about? What had caused such a deep political divide in Ireland that two sides (many of whom were former comrades-in-arms) became so unreconcilable that they engaged in vicious conflict.
The principle cause of the Irish Civil War may seem a little bewildering, especially when looking back over the past one hundred years to June 1922. We have the benefit of hindsight, something the people living in the early 1920s did not. Consequently, it is always best to examine the context of the time. In early 1922, Ireland had just recently emerged from a violent struggle with Great Britain (Irish War of Independence 1919-21) that was waged to win an independent Irish republic. To understand subsequent developments more fully, the War of Independence was fought between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British Crown Forces (British army, and associated paramilitary police forces/ RIC, Black and Tans, Auxiliaries). Both sides in the conflict had eventually agreed a truce (9th July 1921) that had brought the guerrilla war to an end. Subsequently, after months of hard negotiation the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed by Irish and British representatives on the 6th of December 1921. That treaty was ratified by the 2nd Dáil (assembly/lower house of Irish parliament) on the 7th January 1922 by a narrow margin, 64 votes for and 57 against. What may seem very odd to us today is the fact that as a result of the treaty the island of Ireland was partitioned into two states, but that did not seem to figure too much in the Dáil Treaty Debates. When viewed in the light of the violent conflicts (“the Troubles”) that have flared up in Northern Ireland since it came into existence, why was partition not the pre-eminent issue in the debates? It seems that neither the pro nor any-treaty sides thought such a small state (Northern Ireland consists of 6 counties) would survive too long. Also, under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty a future Boundary Commission would decided exactly where the border separating Northern Ireland and the new Irish Free State (consisting of 26 counties) should be. Perhaps the thinking of Irish nationalists was that the Boundary Commission would give more territory which had Nationalist/Catholic majorities to the Irish Free State thus making Northern Ireland uneconomic and consequently unable to support itself. From a British imperialist perspective an independent Irish republic was always non-negotiable. If Ireland became a republic it might set an example for other parts of the empire to follow. It is important to note an Irish Provisional Government was formed on the 16th of January 1922 to govern southern Ireland in a transition phase until the Irish Free State was established on the 6th December 922. The Chairman (leader) of the Provisional Government was Michael Collins who had masterminded the IRA campaign during the War of Independence.
However, what did feature very prominently in the debates was the clause that made the Irish Free State a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. In essence, Ireland would not be an independent republic, it would instead be a dominion, just like Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Furthermore, all members of the Free State Parliament were required to be “faithful to H.M. King George V, his heirs and successors”. This requirement was anathema to many Irish republicans. The Irish Republic they had struggled so hard to win and that their comrades had died or were imprisoned for seemed to be gone forever. It was a very bitter pill to swallow. The Irish Civil War is often portrayed as a struggle between those who were pragmatists and those who were idealists. The former representing those who wanted to consolidate what was achieved and who were prepared to build on it to accomplish more. The latter representing those who still believed in ultimate victory, that the republic could still be achieved by persevering and continuing the fight. These two views were obviously not compatible, the IRA split over the Anglo-Irish Treaty and it was only a matter of time before angry disagreement turned to bloody violent conflict.
Events moved at a rapid pace during the month of June 1922. On the 16th, a general election was held and the pro-Treaty candidates won a substantial victory over their anti-Treaty rivals. On the 22nd, Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, a former Chief of the British Imperial General Staff during World War I and a recently elected Ulster Unionist MP, was shot dead just outside his home in central London by two British-born IRA men (both were later executed). The assassination of Wilson sent shock waves through the British government who put enormous pressure on Michael Collins and the Provisional Government to take immediate military action against the anti-Treaty IRA garrison in the Four Courts. Then on the 26th, a more immediate prompt for Collins to act was the kidnapping of National Army General J. J. O'Connell by an anti-Treaty IRA unit who subsequently held the general as a hostage in the Four Courts. The anti Treaty IRA garrison continued to defy the authority of the Provisional Government. And so it was that on the 28th of June 1922, with borrowed British artillery (two 18-pounder field guns) the national army bombarded the Four Courts whose garrison surrendered two days later, their improvised fortress a devastated ruin. Fighting spread to an area around Dublin’s O’Connell Street then in the following months to the south and west of the country. The Irish Civil War ended on the 24th May 1923.

31/05/2022

Between 10.45 am and 11.00 am on the morning of the 28th of June 1914, on Franz Josef Strasse in the small city of Sarajevo, then the provincial capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, a Graf & Stift open touring car came to a sudden stop. The driver was frantically trying to put the car into reverse as he had taken a wrong turn and his rear-seat passengers had been the targets of an assassin just a short time earlier. A bomb had been thrown at the car but had bounced off its rolled back roof cover and had exploded underneath the following car in the cavalcade injuring many people. Now, perhaps due to confusion and/or lack of communication, the driver had either not been told clearly or had not completely understood the exact route of his return journey and he had unwittingly delivered his very important passengers within point-blank range of the man who would shoot them dead. That man was a nineteen years old student named Gavrilo Princip and he was a Bosnian Serb nationalist. The rear-seat passengers were Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Imperial Throne of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Gavrilo Princip reacted instantly to an opportunity that had unexpectantly presented itself to him, a stalled car with literally sitting targets inside it at very close range. He quickly raised his semi-automatic pistol and fired two bullets. The first bullet hit Franz Ferdinand and the second hit his wife Sophie, both of them died from their wounds shortly afterward. Although Gavrilo Princip had fired only two shots on that fateful day in Sarajevo, the shootings had cataclysmic consequences for the rest of the world. The Austria-Hungarian Empire blamed Serbia as being the real instigator of the assassinations and on the 28th of July 1914, it declared war on Serbia. As a consequence, several empires which had previously made several self-protection alliances (for different reasons) would go to war. Inevitably, their overseas colonies and dominions would be dragged into the conflict as well. There would be war on land, on the sea, and in the air with massive destruction of life and property. Estimates vary, but around 10 million soldiers and up to 9.5 million civilians died between the start of the war (World War I) in 1914 and its end in 1918. The political and military balance of power in Europe was reshaped after the war as four empires had collapsed (Russian, German, Austro-Hungary, and Ottoman).
From an Irish perspective, the obvious question raised is, why did Irishmen in 1914 sign up at British army recruiting offices to fight and perhaps later die or be permanently maimed in a war against the German and Austria-Hungarian empires when neither had posed a direct threat to Ireland’s national self-interest? After all, the assassinations of an archduke and his wife in a faraway place might seem to have very little consequence to the population of a small country on the most extreme western edge of Europe. The answer of course is that in 1914, Ireland was not only part of the British Empire, it was also an integral part of the United Kingdom (UK) itself, the beating political heart of that empire. Consequently, whatever was deemed a threat to the British Empire was automatically considered by the UK government in London as a threat to Ireland. The political reality at the time was that Ireland did not have its own national parliament to debate the crucial issue of whether or not to intervene in the great European conflict that was about to erupt. That vital decision would have to be made in the UK parliament in London in the specific interest of Great Britain and her empire. And so it was to be, war was declared on the German Empire on the 4th of August 1914. Moreover, the UK had its own internal political turmoil to deal with. In the early summer of 1914, Ireland seemed to be on the verge of civil war over the burning issue of "Home Rule", a very limited form of self-government within the UK. The accompanying picture shows the British Military Cemetery at Grangegorman, Dublin, where hundreds of British and Commonwealth soldiers are buried.

22/05/2022

Between 10.45 am and 11.00 am on the morning of the 28th of June 1914, on Franz Josef Strasse in the small city of Sarajevo, then the provincial capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, a Graf & Stift open touring car came to a sudden stop. The driver was frantically trying to put the car into reverse as he had taken a wrong turn and his rear-seat passengers had been the targets of an assassin just a short time earlier. A bomb had been thrown at the car but had bounced off its rolled back roof cover and had exploded underneath the following car in the cavalcade injuring many people. Now, perhaps due to confusion and/or lack of communication, the driver had either not been told clearly or had not completely understood the exact route of his return journey and he had unwittingly delivered his very important passengers within point-blank range of the man who would shoot them dead. That man was a nineteen years old student named Gavrilo Princip and he was a Bosnian Serb nationalist. The rear-seat passengers were Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Imperial Throne of the Austria-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Gavrilo Princip reacted instantly to an opportunity that had unexpectantly presented itself to him, a stalled car with literally sitting targets inside it at very close range. He quickly raised his semi-automatic pistol and fired two bullets. The first bullet hit Franz Ferdinand and the second hit his wife Sophie, both of them died from their wounds shortly afterward. Although Gavrilo Princip had fired only two shots on that fateful day in Sarajevo, the shootings had cataclysmic consequences for the rest of the world. The Austria-Hungarian Empire blamed Serbia as being the real instigator of the assassinations and on the 28th of July 1914, it declared war on Serbia. As a consequence, several empires which had previously made several self-protection alliances (for different reasons) would go to war. Inevitably, their overseas colonies and dominions would be dragged into the conflict as well. There would be war on land, on the sea, and in the air with massive destruction of life and property. Estimates vary, but around 10 million soldiers and up to 9.5 million civilians died between the start of the war (World War I) in 1914 and its end in 1918. The political and military balance of power in Europe was reshaped after the war as four empires had collapsed (Russian, German, Austro-Hungary, and Ottoman).

From an Irish perspective, the obvious question raised is, why did Irishmen in 1914 sign up at British army recruiting offices to fight and perhaps later die or be permanently maimed in a war against the German and Austria-Hungarian empires when neither had posed a direct threat to Ireland’s national self-interest? After all, the assassinations of an archduke and his wife in a faraway place might seem to have very little consequence to the population of a small country on the most extreme western edge of Europe. The answer of course is that in 1914, Ireland was not only part of the British Empire, it was also an integral part of the United Kingdom (UK) itself, the beating political heart of that empire. Consequently, whatever was deemed a threat to the British Empire was automatically considered by the UK government in London as a threat to Ireland. The political reality at the time was that Ireland did not have its own national parliament to debate the crucial issue of whether or not to intervene in the great European conflict that was about to erupt. That vital decision would have to be made in the UK parliament in London in the specific interest of Great Britain and her empire. And so it was to be, war was declared on the German Empire on the 4th of August 1914. Moreover, the UK had its own internal political turmoil to deal with. In the early summer of 1914, Ireland seemed to be on the verge of civil war over the burning issue of "Home Rule", a very limited form of self-government within the UK. The accompanying picture shows the British Military Cemetery at Grangegorman, Dublin, where hundreds of British and Commonwealth soldiers are buried.