Tenement Life in Dublin before the 1916 Rising

Next week we will begin a novel called ‘The Guns of Easter’ by Gerard Whelan. In it we will follow the life and adventures of Jimmy Conway, a young boy born into the slums of Dublin in the years leading up to the 1916 Rising. This week we will take a look at living conditions in Dublin’s tenements where Jimmy lived with his family.

In the early 1900’s before the 1916 Rising, life was very tough for the poor of Dublin. Many Dubliners lived in tenements. These were buildings which had originally been built for rich people in the 1700’s. Now, 200 years later, they were owned by unscrupulous landlords who divided each house up into dozens of one-room apartments. As a result, a fine Georgian 3 -storey house with a basement – which had once housed a single wealthy family – might now house up to 20 families.

This is a picture of a typical tenement apartment. In this small space, a whole family lived, ate and slept together. Look closely at this picture. List 10 items that you can identify in it.

Write down 6 observations about this picture. How did the people who lived here cook their meals? How did they wash and dry their clothes? In a single room, did they all have a bed to sleep in? Can you see anything in the picture that might be dangerous? What would you miss most if you had to live here?

Look at this picture and the ones on the following pages and say what you see.

In many tenements, dozens of families relied on a single tap for water.

Some of the tenement buildings were so neglected and poorly maintained that they were dangerous. In our novel The Guns of Easter a little girl falls through the floor of the 3 rd floor room she lived in. At about 8. 45 pm on the night of Tuesday 2 nd September, 1913, two houses, Numbers 66 and 67 Church Street collapsed. The rubble fell across the width of the street