‘They blew up the best portion of our city and … it is their duty to replace it’: compensation andreconstruction in the aftermathof the 1916 Rising

Abstract

In his vivid account of Easter Week 1916, The insurrection in Dublin, the writer James Stephens observed: ‘The finest part of our city has been blown to smithereens, and burned into ashes. Soldiers amongst us who have served abroad say that the ruin of this quarter is more complete than anything they have seen at Ypres, than anything they have seen anywhere in France or Flanders.’ In a letter to his sister, Henry Beater, company secretary of Arnotts, also likened the smouldering ruins of Sackville Street and the adjoining thoroughfares to a scene from the war: House after house destroyed utterly. Clery & Co., D.B.C., Eason, G.P.O., Metropole and Imperial Hotels, Freeman’s Journal and literally dozens of other establishments in ruins. Henry St. on both sides from the pillar to Arnott & Co. nearly every house down and absolutely ruined.