www.military.ie the defence forces magazine
| 29
Mr Hayter, a local grocer, was also killed as he attempted to
cross the line of fire.
In order to retake the metropolis from the rebels, the British
directed artillery fire on to the city, with devastating results.
Fires erupted throughout O'Connell Street, adding to the ones
that had been set by the looters. The conflagration spread
rapidly, destroying everything in its path, with the fire brigade
unable to attend to the inferno as the battles raging through-
out the city prevented them from leaving their stations.
A number of bizarre events occurred during that week, the
most unusual being the twice-daily truce, observed by both
sides, as Mr James Kearney, the park keeper, entered St Ste-
phen's Green to feed the ducks.
As large parts of 'the second city of the Empire' burnt to the
ground, rebel positions slowly began to capitulate and sur-
rendering Volunteers were taken into captivity.
It is a little-known fact of the Rising that there were more
civilians killed during that week than British soldiers or Irish
Volunteers, yet while the rebels are remembered each year in
a public commemoration in O'Connell Street, the hundreds of
non-combatants, men, women and children, that were killed
that Easter week, have no memorial. Instead, they lie through-
out Dublin's many graveyards, forgotten, a silent reminder of
a city at war and of 'man's inhumanity to man'.
about the author:
Paul O'Brien is a military historian and author and a regular
contributor to An Cosantóir. He has written many books on
the 1916 Rising, including Shootout: The Battle For St Stephen's
Green, 1916; Field of Fire: The Battle of Ashbourne, 1916; Cross-
fire: The Battle for the Four Courts, 1916; Blood on the Streets:
1916 and the Battle for Mount Street Bridge; and Uncommon
Valour: 1916 and the Battle for South Dublin Union. He has also
written monographs on Dublin's oldest cemetery, Bully's Acre,
(Kilmainham Tale 4) and Arbour Hill Cemetery (Kilmainham
Tale 5). www.paulobrienauthor.ie
