Survey Data
Reg No
50070099
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Monument
Date
1955 - 1960
Coordinates
314109, 234759
Date Recorded
04/11/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Landscaped 1916 memorial, erected 1956. Paved platform of hexagonal granite slabs approached from south by six granite steps. Central rectangular median of grass to platform, lined with cut limestone panels inscribed with names in Irish and English. Curved Ardbraccan limestone screen wall to north with mounted gilded crucifix to centre, and proclamation of independence text inscribed. Limestone memorial plaque, constructed 1966 on north elevation of prison boundary wall opposite 1916 memorial, inscribed with names in Irish of some of those who died in 1916 conflict. Approached by steps to south-east and east from graveyard of Church of the Sacred Heart.
Appraisal
The land on which the memorial was built was formerly the burial ground, and then drill ground of Arbour Hill detention barracks (built 1848). This was where the seven signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of Independence, were buried in quicklime after their execution at Kilmainham Gaol in 1916. North of the mound, the text of the Proclamation is inscribed in a screen wall in Irish and English, carved by Michael Biggs in 1956. An additional memorial was erected in 1966, a year when many monuments were erected throughout the country for the fiftieth anniversary of the rising. An annual 1916 commemoration mass takes place at the Church of the Sacred Heart to the south, attended by the President, members of the Oireachtas, invited guests and relatives of those who took part in the 1916 Rising. Historically the location is of major significance as the burial place of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of Independence.