Eamon Dore describes the months leading up to the Easter Rising. He fought in the GPO during Easter Week and talks about the fighting, the leaders, O'Rahilly's charge and the surrender.
Eamon Dore was from Glin, County Limerick and was studying medicine in UCD, Dublin. He was a member of the IRB and joined the Irish Volunteers soon after their inception. This interview begins with Dore recalling the meeting of the Military Council of the IRB where they decided on the date of the Rising. According to Dore, "They'd all their arrangements made". The tension was high in Dublin as it was feared that the authorities were going to arrest the Volunteer leadership at any moment.
While the IRB were finalising their plans, James Connolly was preparing his Citizen Army to strike a blow also. A meeting was arranged with Connolly, which took place in Dolphin's Barn on the south side of the city. After this the IRB and Connolly agreed they would fight together.
Dore was very close to both Tom Clarke and Seán MacDiarmada, who he met sometime around 1914 while in Tom Clarke's shop on Parnell Street. Remembering that first meeting Dore says,
I was really thrilled with the sincerity that seemed to come out of his face.
At the time of the Rising Eamon Dore was on holiday at home in Limerick. As soon as he heard the Rising was on, he made his way to Dublin and managed to get into the GPO. Dore was ordered by MacDiarmada to escort the Daly sisters to Kingsbridge (Heuston) Station. The sister were to bring word to Cork and Limerick that the Rising had begun. He got the girls safely away but when returning to the GPO he noticed a large number of British troops in the area surrounding O'Connell Street.
After some difficulty he made it back to the GPO but as he was about to enter the building he came under fire from the military. Unharmed he got into the post office and reported his findings to Tom Clarke, MacDiarmada and James Connolly. Not believing Dore, Connolly left the GPO to see for himself the situation, and was shot.
By Friday the position in the GPO was becoming untenable. Even though the building was ablaze and beginning to collapse Dore was amazed at his comrades,
They were all standing there as if nothing was wrong. The whole place was on fire, the shelling was still going on, the heat was intense... and here were those fellas waiting for further instructions.
Dore was chosen to go out with the advance guard lead by 'The' O'Rahilly. Describing the charge up Moore Street he says,
It struck us that we couldn't get any further, the British were too strong there. We'd no hope of doing anything.
O'Rahilly and a number of other Volunteers were killed. Dore and his comrades managed to find shelter in a nearby yard where they remained until the surrender. He was interned in Frongoch Internment Camp. At the time of the Easter Rising he was attached to ‘B’ Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers. On his release he rejoined the IRB and during the War of Independence served as an Intelligence Officer IRA Limerick. He married Nora Daly in 1918, whom he had brought safely to Kingsbridge Station during the Rising. Eamon Dore died in 1972, he was seventy-six years old.
Eamon Dore was interviewed for the RTÉ Television project 'Portraits 1916' in 1965.
