NLI to Digitize Pre-Republic History of Ireland
Heather Humphreys, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and Dr Sandra Collins, Director of the National Library of Ireland. (Photo: Naoise Culhane) Heather Humphreys, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, and Dr Sandra Collins, Director of the National Library of Ireland. (Photo: Naoise Culhane) By Mary Gallagher, Editorial Assistant
The National Library of Ireland rolled out plans in January for a new digital archive of modern Irish history. The archive, called Towards a Republic, will document the tumultuous series of events between 1918 and 1923, beginning with the Irish Republican Army’s brutal struggle for independence from Britain and ending with the Irish Civil War. It is one product of a €2 million investment in historical preservation by the Irish Department for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.
In the 1916 Easter Rising, she became a fully-fledged officer in the Irish Citizen Army and had fought in St. Stephen’s Green during the uprising, eventually surrendering and then sentenced to death.
Because she was a woman, however, Markievicz was spared the death penalty and was given a life sentence. One year later, in 1917, the Countess was given amnesty and released from Ailsbury Gaol in England.
In 1918, Markievicz was elected as a member of Sinn Féin, but due to the abstentionist policy of her party in refusing to swear allegiance to the monarch, she never took her seat in parliament.