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Children carry firewood from the rubble of Sackville Street, now O'Connell Street in the immediate aftermath of the Rising PA Archive/Press Association Images

Voices of 1916 'John Healy, 14, a schoolboy, had his brain hanging all over his forehead'

A nurse tending the wounded and dying of Easter 1916 at the Mater hospital recalls the shocking sights that would stay with her for the rest of her life.

THIS WEEK, our Voices section is dedicated to the men, women and children whose first-hand experiences contributed to the rich patchwork of testimony that chronicles the events of 1916.

This first-hand testimony, recorded in the Bureau of Military History’s collection of eyewitnesses to the Rising, comes from an unnamed member of the Sisters of Mercy who was a nurse at the Mater hospital at that time.

As well as tending to the wounded and dying delivered to the hospital, she later looked after hunger strikers of 1917, including Thomas Ashe who she saw die in hospital following his move there from Mountjoy, where he had been forcefed.

She went on to nurse thousands of Dubliners afflicted by the so-called Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.

Thomas Ashe, 1916 participant and 1917 hunger striker. Wikipedia Wikipedia

Here she describes the abysmal conditions under which hospital staff laboured in 1916 – and details sights which would stay with her for the rest of her life:

During Easter Week, Mr Alexander Blayney (Surgeon) was on duty in the hospital. He never left it that whole week. He was operating day and night.

There was neither gas nor electricity and he had to operate by the light of candles brought from the sacristy. There was no sterilisation of instruments or dressings as there was no boiling water at hand, yet there was no case of sepsis following any of the operations.

We were instructed that patients with abdominal wounds should be brought straight to the theatre without waiting to remove any clothes except the shoes and stockings.

Tuesday was the first day that any wounded were brought. Nine of these were detained and the rest were treated and discharged. One of the badly wounded, Margaret Nolan who was a forewoman in Jacob’s factory died that day, as did also James Kelly – a schoolboy who was shot through the skull.

Graham Hughes / RollingNews.ie Graham Hughes / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

Another schoolboy John (Seán) Healy aged 14, a member of the Fianna whose brain was hanging all over his forehead when he was brought in, died after two days. Another man, Patrick Harris, died also on Tuesday of laceration of the brain.

[The story of John Healy is recounted in more detail in Joe Duffy's Children of the Rising. John lived with his nine siblings, mother Helena and father Christopher - a plumber - on Phibsborough Road. He had already left school to become an apprentice with his father when the Rising broke out.

0312 A commemorative leaflet issued by the Irish National Aid and Volunteers' Dependents Fund. It features John Healy's name. National Library of Ireland National Library of Ireland

John tried to join the rebels in the Jacob biscuit factory just off present-day Aungier Street but was apparently sent away by Thomas MacDonagh as he deemed him too young.

His family believes though that MacDonagh gave John a message to deliver regarding an ambush at the bridge in Phibsborough but he was shot near there, and a plaque in his name can be seen at what is now Doyle’s corner, off the North Circular Road, just a short distance from John’s family home.]

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

In the next excerpt in the nurse’s testimony, she hints that her and other medics’ sympathies lay with those they saw injured in the conflict, not just civilian casualties but also wounded Volunteers:

Another wounded man that was brought in on the Wednesday was Patrick McCrea. He was suffering from pellet wounds in the hand, backside and leg which he told me he got in the Post office fighting. His wounds being slight, he was sent out of the GPO with a despatch.

He then got shelter somewhere and was brought to the hospital for treatment covered up in a load of cabbage.

(The following is an excerpt from McCrea, visible in his witness statement here.)

Almost immediately a G man called McIntyre came to the hospital. He identified McCrea and took up his position on the corridor outside the ward to keep him under observation.

He did not even go out to get his meals and I was unwilling to supply him with any. One of the nuns thought it a pity not to give him something to eat and brought him to the pantry. The students made various suggestions for dealing with McIntyre, including chloroforming him.

In spite of McIntyre’s vigilance McCrea managed to get away safely on the 4th May. While McIntyre was in the pantry having his dinner, one of the sisters who had made all the necessary preparations beforehand, got the key leading from the Pathological Department to the street. She took a nurse, a very fine girl, called Máire O’Connor from Ballybunion into her confidence. The latter brought McCrea along the corridor through the mortuary to the exit door, let him out and locked the door behind him.

The whole thing did not take five minutes and the sister replaced the key in its lock without its having been missed. McCrea was afterwards an active Volunteer and I heard he was in the armoured car that tried to rescue Seán MacEoin from gaol.

(McCrea confirms the nurses’ help in his escape here):

On Wednesday the numbers of wounded increased, 21 being detained. Two of them were already dead when brought in and six died in the course of the day. Twenty-one wounded were detained for treatment on Thursday. Seven of them died within a week and another on the 14th May.

Eight of the nine wounded brought in on the Friday and who were detained for treatment, died in the hospital. Only eight were detained on the Saturday. One of these was already dead and another insane. The latter was removed to the Richmond Lunatic Asylum after a few days.

Only one wounded man was detained for treatment on Sunday.

Practically all the wounded men who were brought in were Volunteers, but very few of them were in uniform. There was at least one looter brought in. He was very drunk and was found wearing a couple of suits of clothes and was in possession of many other accessories including a toy revolver which was large enough to be taken for a real one.

Find more extraordinary eyewitness accounts like this in the Bureau of Military History archives here.

The chaplain’s story: ‘Crying, terrified children came to us for shelter’>

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    Mute Ziggy722
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:41 AM

    They are already talking about using this technology to cure phobias like speaking in public and other more general forms of social anxiety. The possibilities with this technology are immense and positively exciting.

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    Mute Teddington
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:23 PM

    More likely people will use them to escape social situations as we veer further towards a fully virtual society.

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    Mar 30th 2016, 8:22 PM

    Porn, it’s going to be used for porn. Same as the Internet.

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    Mute Gooney
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:46 AM

    FFS get a grip,that was pure shite!

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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:41 AM

    Jasus The Journal has gone downhill if this is considered newsworthy

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:47 AM

    They’ve always peddled fluff alongside the more pressing issues. Room for them both

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:59 AM

    Every weekday at 11am we have Take a Break, it’s generally a lighter video like this. We have about 60+ articles a day, so there’s plenty to read that isn’t like this.

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:35 PM

    Great, now look what you’ve done Cosmo. Hope you’re happy.
    Pass no heed aoife you’re doing a sterling job. Snapchat hun?

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    Mute Cosmo Kramer
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:48 PM

    Yes but not every video with an “Irish Mammy” is funny

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    Mute Paige Turners
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:59 PM

    I like the Journals work @Aoife. Never mind the bugrudgers! I think it’s a great video. .. shows how accessible it is. The Irish mammy dropping f-bombs is classic!!

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    Mute Brian
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:33 PM

    Nothing to do with begrudging, it’s just my opinion and many others that it is cringeworthy and not remotely funny. Journal can do much better than this

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    Mute Chewy_Burton
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:38 AM

    Yawn

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    Mute GameOverMan
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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:46 AM

    Was expecting more ‘

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    Mute J Judd
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:05 PM

    FFS Filming in portrait !

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    Mute OU812
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:18 PM

    You’d think they’d make the cameras not record video in portrait by this stage…

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    Mute graham galvin
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    Mar 30th 2016, 6:05 PM

    Or you would think people would know to record with their phone sideways by now.

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:15 PM

    Was only a matter of time before these videos arrived.

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    Mute Slew Lok
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:26 PM

    I wonder what she was watching

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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:32 PM

    It’s the jurassic Park clip. A sleeping bronctosauaus wakes up and comes over to you. It’s really cool

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    Mute Peter Mc Hugh
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:06 PM

    Why is the footage warping at sections around the womans body?

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    Mute Foghorn Leghorn
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:41 PM

    Illuminati and or NWO, with a possibility of lizard people shapeshifting

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:12 PM
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    Mute Tertullian
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    Mar 30th 2016, 7:23 PM

    That’s nearly two minutes of my life wasted. On the plus side, at least she didn’t pepper the entire video with multiple effing and blinding which, unfortunately, one has come to expect from such Irish-made videos. But for gawd’s sake, why can’t the makers of them use landscape mode?

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Mar 30th 2016, 4:12 PM

    That looked like me coming home from the pub last night.

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:02 PM

    Have a look at that wine rack in the background, packed!! Bit early in the day to be drinking!

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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:42 PM

    Are those the 30€ dunnes headsets?

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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:56 PM

    Gear VR

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    Mar 30th 2016, 11:59 AM

    That kitchen looks a bit dated!

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    Mar 30th 2016, 12:47 PM

    Billy big balls cause he has an island in his

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:01 PM

    I think this is an advert…

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Mar 30th 2016, 1:00 PM

    This pornos great…

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    Mar 30th 2016, 4:18 PM
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    Mar 30th 2016, 10:16 PM

    Can’t wait to play knockout kings on this so I can finally win a fight.

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