One of the little known
stories of the 1916 Easter Rising was the sad death of Ringsend publican Robert
Woodcock. Robert and his brother Samuel were born in Mothel, Co. Kilkenny just
north of Kilkenny city. After serving his apprenticeship in a public house in
Dun Laoghaire, Robert purchased his first pub on Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore in
1909 on the banks of the Grand Canal known as Murrays, where the Black Horse
pub traded for many years. His brother Samuel also bought his own pub on the
corner of Thomas Street and Meath Street, now Baker’s Corner.
Meanwhile Carlow born
Peter Clowry, who owned the pub at 16 Thorncastle Street, now known as Sally
O’Brien’s (or the Shipwright), died in January 1916. The Woodcock’s, as well
known publicans in the Dublin, attended the funeral but also spotted an
opportunity. In February, thirty three year old Robert purchased Clowry’s from
his estate for £3,200 and immediately began trading. Robert was an active
member, like many of his fellow publicans in the South Dublin Union.
Two months after his
arrival in Ringsend, he decided to use the Easter bank holiday weekend to
travel home to Kilkenny to see his elderly farmer father, a widower. He
travelled down in his motorcar on Saturday and decided to return on Monday but
in his absence from Dublin, rebels from the Irish Volunteers, Cumman na mBan
and the Irish Citizens Army took to the streets of the capital and seized
control of a number of buildings. One of the battle sites seized mainly by
members of the Citizens Army was St. Stephens Green. As word of trouble spread
around the country, Robert decided to drive back to Dublin to look after his
businesses. He arrived first at Tyrconnell Road and decided to drive across to
Ringsend but he met a DMP policeman who asked him to give him a lift to
Phibsboro.
They drove down Harcourt
Street onto St. Stephens Green where they were met by rebels on the road who
held them up at gunpoint. The two men were taken prisoner and removed into the
green itself where they were greeted by Countess Markiewicz and Michael Mallin.
Woodcocks’ car was made into a barricade at the top of York Street. Robert
Woodcock was tied to a tree in the park while the policeman joined other
prisoners being held in the gate house in the park. At one stage after a number
of hours of being tied up, one of his captors decided to release Woodcock but
another rebel recognised Woodcock and harboured ill feeling towards him as he
appeared to side with the employers during the 1913 Lockout and was suspected
as being anti Larkin. He remained a prisoner in the park throughout the night
but by Tuesday as the British troops on the roof of the Shelbourne Hotel began
to attack the rebel forces. The rebels, who had dug trenches in the park, had
no answer or cover from the machine fire that was now focused on them.
The commander’s decision
was to retreat from the park itself and take the College of Surgeons as their
headquarters. Woodcock was taken across to the building but his exposure
throughout the previous night had an immediate detrimental effect on his
health. Woodcock was seriously ill. He
was taken by ambulance to nearby St Vincent’s hospital on St. Stephen’s Green, where
he died twenty minutes after being admitted on April 28th of double
pneumonia ‘brought on by exposure’, becoming a fatality of the Rising.
On May 16th the
Evening Herald reported that on that day,
‘At
the City Sessions, before the Recorder Mr. T.R. Holmes solicitor applied on
behalf of Mr. Samuel Woodcock of 45 and 46 Thomas Street that he should be at
liberty to carry on the licensed trading in the premises 16 Thorncastle Street,
Ringsend until the Quarter Sessions. The licensee, Mr. Robert Woodcock,
applicant’s brother, had been kept prisoner by the insurgents in St. Stephens
Green during the recent insurrection and died subsequently from pneumonia brought on by exposure. The recorder granted the application.’
The Freeman Journal reported in June that
Samuel had been granted permission by the Dean’s Grange Burial Board to
disinter his brother’s body and have it removed to Kilkenny. The Journal did
report however that Robert had been accidentally shot during the rebellion. According
to the Irishmedals.ie website,
‘While the area Woodcock was buried in was being cleared 2014, a
headstone with the name Robert Woodcock, it is likely the disinterment did not
take place because Robert Woodcock buried with others without coffins and the
bodies were decomposed to such a degree the disinterment did not take place.
The new headstone was erected in 2016.’
In July, Robert’s brother
Samuel applied to the courts to transfer the license into his name which was
approved. The pub was sold two years later. The sadness of his passing was compounded
that when the at time controversial memorial wall to the victims of the 1916
Easter Rising was unveiled at Glasnevin Cemetery, the memory of Robert Woodcock
was somewhat obliterated when the engravers decided his name was ‘Richard
Woodcock’. Surely this should be corrected immediately to honour both his
memory and show respect to his family.
