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Enniscorthy Remembers
Enniscorthy Historical Re-enactment Society came together at Market Square on Sunday 16th January to re-enact and commemorate the surrender of Dublin Castle to Michael Collins and the Provisional Government. Pic: Maria Nolan.
Enniscorthy Historical Re-enactment Society came together at Market Square on Sunday 16th January to reenact and commemorate the surrender of Dublin Castle to Michael Collins and the Provisional Government at 1.45pm on that date one hundred years before. In a simple, dignified ceremony introduced by Graham Cadogan and narrated by Wexford County Council Historian-in-Residence, Barry Lacey, a Union Jack was lowered, folded, and presented to the last Viceroy of Ireland, Lord FitzAlan-Howard, as the Tricolour was hoisted to the strains of Amhrán na bhFiann, observing and celebrating the most significant date in our history for hundreds of years. Michael Collins and a Dáil delegation arrived late to the Castle that day, a century ago, and made their way through
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the cheering crowds who had been gathering at the Castle gates since noon and now stretched in every direction along Dame Street, anxious to witness the historic occasion. Arriving at the Castle, Collins was met by James McMahon, Under Secretary, who greeted him with, ‘We’re glad to see you Mr. Collins’, to which Collins is reputed to have replied in his best Cork accent, ‘Ye are like hell, boy.’ In the Council Chambers, Collins handed the Viceroy a copy of the London Treaty of 6th December 1921 and the Lord Lieutenant congratulated him and his colleagues and informed them that they were now duly installed as the Provisional Government. He went on to wish them every success, expressing the earnest hope that under their auspices the ideal of a happy, free, and prosperous Ireland would be attained.
At 2.25pm, the handover complete, Collins bounded out through the doorway, jumped into the lead car and was on his way, ending the War of Independence with the brief, historic formality that Ireland had waited over seven hundred years for. – Maria Nolan
Barry Lacey
