tisdag, augusti 02, 2011

Thomas Clarke's house

This is the house (in Richmond Avenue, Fairview) where Thomas Clarke, signatory to the 1916 Proclamation, lived
The night before the rising Thomas Clarke, his wife Kathleen and his two bodyguards planned what to do in case of a raid.
Kathleen Clarke tells the story: "....the hall door was in the middle of the house, with rooms on each side, and the stairs faced the hall door. If a knock came, I was to go to the door and ask who was there. If the answer the police or the military, I was to say nothing but open the door, keeping close behind it. Tom was to be in the door of the room on the other side of the hall door, and Tommy and Sean were to take up a position at the head of the first flight of stairs. We were to fire at each man as he came in, and it was to be a fight to the finish."
(The quote is from "Revolutionary Woman" by Kathleen Clarke, edited by Helen Litton)

The next day Thomas Clarke left this house to start the uprising.

In 1919 Madam Markievicz moved in (with all her "valuable furniture" that filled four rooms of the house!). The house was raided by the military several times while Kathleen Clarke and her children and Madame Markievicz lived there.

A house of historic importance. Now in a very precarious state...